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Reliable sources for great recipes?

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by mharwitt
post-it-notes.jpg

OK, when I take the pics, I will post them. Unlike Simply French, it is a recipe that calls for a lot of technique, but you learn a lot of techniques doing it, and since it is cold, you can go back and redo parts rather than having a big cock-up at the end.
 

medwards

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Broadening the question a little bit, here are the books that have been most beneficial to me in my own development. They go beyond just recipe books and include those texts that most helped me understand food and cooking as well as develop my skills and approach. I'll begin with books that have helped provide the fundamental techniques. I think of them as my basic texts, though they were far from the first books that I encountered or tried to master. They are The Culinary Institute of America's The Professional Chef and Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques. My actual starting point rested with three other volumes. Each is a recipe-based book that clearly explored the underpinnings of each dish's preparation. All are classics now: Michael Field's Cooking School, James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking, and, of course, Julia. All three contain wonderful (though now well established) recipes. They may no longer be cutting edge, but they are great dishes. So where do I turn when I'm just ferreting out basic recipes, I find I turn most often to the New York Times Cook Book, my collection of Gourmet magazines, and (okay I'll even confess it) The Joy of Cooking. And there are two essential texts that have served as invaluable resources -- albiet not for their recipes -- LaRousse Gastonomique and Harold McGee's remarkable On Food and Cooking. I'd concur with both The Silver Palate Cookbook and Jonathan Waxman's A Great American Cook as wonderful sources of ideas...and the Keller books are indeed remarkable. If you do decide to try recipes from TFL, take a look at Carol Blymire's blog on cooking The French Laundry at Home for some rather helpful insights. My list tends to be traditionally French-based, but if you want to go a different direction, you can't do much better than Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking for Italian, Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, or closer to home Paul Prudhomme's now classic Louisiana Kitchen (though I do like Susan Spicer's Crescent City Cooking a good deal).
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by iammatt
OK, when I take the pics, I will post them. Unlike Simply French, it is a recipe that calls for a lot of technique, but you learn a lot of techniques doing it, and since it is cold, you can go back and redo parts rather than having a big cock-up at the end.

OK, here it is. You'll need to enlarge the pics a bit, but the resolution is good enough that there should be no problem reading them.

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It's certainly not the kind of thing that I would think of making other than for a very special occasion, but it is delicious. The gelee freezes quite well, if you have or make extra, and it is great with any cold seafood.
 

tattersall

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Originally Posted by iammatt
I can pm it to you. If you don't mind French, I can just take a pic from a book. It is quite easy to make, and there is little difference between what I have had at his restaurants and what you would reasonably expect at home.

Thanks for posting. We had it at Atelier in Paris and it was very memorable. This recipe looks like it will test my limits...

I assume "maizena" is just polenta?
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by tattersall
Thanks for posting. We had it at Atelier in Paris and it was very memorable. This recipe looks like it will test my limits...

I assume "maizena" is just polenta?

cornstarch.
 

MarquisMagic

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Anybody cook out of the Alinea book or David Chang's? How about any of the Blumenthal books?
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by MarquisMagic
Anybody cook out of the Alinea book or David Chang's? How about any of the Blumenthal books?
I've never seen Chang's book, but I don't really think the other two are made for home cooking unless you are used to working in a very particular way and don't want to spend any time with your guests.
 

medwards

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I mentioned Carol Blymire's blog on cooking her way through The French Laundry Cookbook earlier in this thread. She is currently working her way through Alinea. It should give you some insights: Alinea at Home .
 

impolyt_one

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Alinea at home is better as a coffee table book.
 

kwilkinson

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Originally Posted by MarquisMagic
Anybody cook out of the Alinea book or David Chang's? How about any of the Blumenthal books?
I've cooked out of all three. But then again we all know I'm a wildly talented culinarian. Matt can surely attest that I am one of the most brilliantly talented cooks he's ever had the pleasure of dining with.
 

Alter

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Originally Posted by kwilkinson
Matt can surely attest that I am one of the most brilliantly talented cooks he's ever had the pleasure of dining with.

crickets.jpg
 

itsstillmatt

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Originally Posted by kwilkinson
I've cooked out of all three. But then again we all know I'm a wildly talented culinarian. Matt can surely attest that I am one of the most brilliantly talented cooks he's ever had the pleasure of dining with.
I am sure you are an even better wine pourer.
smile.gif
What did you make from there? Oh, Kyle is a fine cook, everybody! Also, that woman above who blogs about her cooking adventures makes me want to barf. About one in ten things looks good, and her personality is like nails on a chalkboard.
 

kwilkinson

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Originally Posted by iammatt
I am sure you are an even better wine pourer.
smile.gif
What did you make from there? Oh, Kyle is a fine cook, everybody!

Also, that woman above who blogs about her cooking adventures makes me want to barf. About one in ten things looks good, and her personality is like nails on a chalkboard.


Out of Fat Duck--- cauliflower risotto and black forest gateau. Alinea-- the bacon dish (using bacon that didn't taste like liquid smoke
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), some of the hearts of palm presentations, the modern PB&J, the blackberry & tobacco dish, and then I've taken a LOT of flavor combinations from the book and used them without the hydrocolloids. And from Chang, I really love his pickled veg recipes, bacon dashi, their steamed pork buns, asparagus w/ miso butter, and his kimchi consomme w/ pork belly and oysters and napa cabbage.
All three were relatively easy to cook out of, except I'd say that Alinea and Fat Duck are probably better suited as inspirational to cooking instead of cooking directly out of them.
 

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