lamarmotte's Profile

Great post. Useful and really funny. 'Scandinavian crack den' - well played!

Any instructions for how to turn this into a slow cooker recipe? How many hours on slow? This seems a great prepare before work recipe if you add the pasta and greens at the very end.

Grace and Faith, I'm wondering what you think of the following. The Shun Lee Cookbook recommends shaking the meat (chicken, pork etc) in cornstarch, putting a good inch or too of low smoke oil in the wok, and pre-cooking it just till the pink is gone. Then discarding the oil except for a tablespoon or two, THEN starting the recipe (garlic, ginger, vegetables, etc.), adding the meat back in at the end before the sauce. I've been doing this for a while and it's true that especially chicken is velvety and delicious this way, but it's a lot of work (prep, where to pour off the oil, etc.) Do you think it's worth it?

(Faith I recently tried your pork and asparagus stir fry using this method and it was great!!!)

My only problelm with this dish is that I couldn't stop snacking on yummy spoonfulls of the chickpea lemon mixture while preparing the other stuff.

Because people in my family are sensitive to garlic and shallots I sauteed these in a generous amount of olive oil, which may have improved the texture and kept the chickpeas from getting too dry, as they were tossed in oil. I bet if you added some chopped marinated artichoke hearts (which I will definitely do next time, that might help too. Did add a half cup of broth though.

Also, encouraged by GetRealChris I substituted the rice with some leftover bulghur/quinoa mix that was already cooked from last night's dinner. Wonder if the rice, even cooked, absorbs too much moisture?

Anyway, great recipe, especially for entertaining vegetarian friends. We're not, but trying to cut down on weekly meat so this is perfect! Thanks - will definitely buy your book!!!

I had some potiron and not a lot of time this weekend and was dying to try this soup so I made it using every shortcut possible - can beans and a jar of good pesto. It was fantastic!! Surely even better with the fresh pistou, but don't be afraid to try it this way if you're pressed for time. The roasted garlic along with the pumpkin totally makes it. I also served a bowl of roasted pine nuts on the side.

Congratulations. You are even more lovely on video than still photos.

I love everything you said, BUT. My husband makes champagne. The reason it is best served in flutes is because the bubbles come from tiny impurities in the glass (nothing bad, just microscopic specs of dust, whatever). A flute has no surface area in the bottom, whereas a wineglass dones. Flute: single stream of bubbles. Wineglass, bubbles everywhere (burp!)

Just for fun sometime, pour the same champagne or prosecco into a flute, and then into a flat bottomed glass. They'll taste different and the drinking experience will be completely different. Also the tulip shape of the flute concentrates the aromas - which you may or may not care about, depending on how much you spent on the champagne.

I love to cook and drink bubbly too. My solution? 'Non-guest' stubby glass champagne flutes (like from Cost Plus). This way I don't feel so bad when I accidentally swipe one off the counter!

Best of luck with the book. Can't wait to get it!

Another vote for granite. Have never sealed it. No stain problems. We have a kind called 'flash surfaced' (not sure if it's called that everwhere) which basically means a every so slightly rough, not shiny surface. Backsplash granite too. We are so happy with it.

Previous kitchen, we paid a fortune for Corian and regretted it. Was not easy to sand out nicks and the surface dulled no matter what product we put on it. Granite is worth the price.

Absolutely fantastic. Bravo!!!

You should add a free-standing fireplace...

I live in Paris. One of the coolest things BHV ever did was, during the sales period (twice a year in France) sell Le Crueset cookware by the kilo. They just had a giant pile of pots and lids and you could combine what you wanted. I didn't have much money at the time - bought my very first piece then.

They do have everything. But know that 1) it's always packed; 2) in the winter they turn the heat up incredibly high so be prepared to carry your coat; and 3) they do have elevators - if you're in the hardware basement definitely follow the signs for 'ascenseur' or the elevator icon to go to the higher floors. The escalator takes forever!

This was great - and super easy. The longer it cooks the better it is.

You could make this up to the simmering stage and put it in the refrigerator overnight, say on a Sunday while you're cooking something else. Then heat it up for half an hour and Monday dinner is done too!