hola chef!

im fine, thanks. can't wait for the winter to completely go away (we still get snow). fresh tomatos sounds like science fiction to me right now. but i might grow them this summer if i have time.

THAT PASTA LOOKS AWESOME.

and hey, the ciabatta doesn't have to be perfect for you to enjoy making it right?

you're lucky to work with something you clearly love. i'm trying to get back to that this year.

by starchy potato i meant a russet in this case. every country has its own potato varieties i think, so names will vary, but you can roughly categorize them by carbohydrate mix /texture.

on the one hand you have the starchy (floury) ones, which will crumble when boiled but make great frittes , can be baked too, mashed, etc. here they're called russet, idaho, there may be others.

on the other hand you have the "waxy" ones, which make good boilers, hold up together in stews, salads, etc. reds, fingerlings, "new" potatoes, etc.

then there are in-between ones like white and yellow potatoes with various degrees of creaminess/flouriness (starchy/waxy), and generally give you a creamier mash.

for the taste/texture i generally prefer waxier potatoes (e.g. yukon gold) but used a starchy variety (russet) for the soup because it makes a better thickener. using this kind saves having to make a roux in a classic clam chowder, for example.

damn...sitting here at work....hungry...and I come into thread. Such a big mistake.

ah ok, potato type. my english cooking vocabulary is pretty bad...
je ne parle pas cuisine alla tutti frutti mit Kartoffelstampf.

yes, get back to doing what feels right for you!

I'm pretty happy here right now. a bit more time for musical projects would be nice...

we had a brezn week basically.
here's noele looking badass making them


took a while, is annoying as hell, but the result is worth it.

(as poolish for the dough we used our old ciabatta bread with the lievito madre)

vienna is getting a bit rough lately but i still have hopes.
state-wise things turn worse and worse and everyone is waiting for norbert hitler to take over the show.

are those steampunk goggles she's wearing or is it some kind of kitchen gear? either way looks cool. mad-scientist like. plus the gloves! i wanna be a mad scientist some day. maybe next winter.

sorry to hear about the political nightmares! here we're about to give donald berlusca the nuclear codes. i guess that's a planetary nightmare.

i googled lievito madre. so you're using wild yeasts + sourdough? (sandor katz has pictures of a table like yours to catch wild yeasts)

i'm curious about austrian potato types now. the irish died like flies centuries ago because they had no varieties.

variety is a good thing! tell that to norbs the aryan before he fucks things up. not that he'll listen.

damn.

i felt politics could lead us astray so i just came in to say:

cinnamon graham crackers, peanut butter, fuji apples, almond milk with some vanilla drops

shakshouka breakfast burrito

tangelos

Spent last Wednesday on Galveston Island. Down on the Strand, we enjoyed lunch at the Mediterranean Cheff.

Lamb gyro with Greek potatoes:




Feeding seagulls from aft of the ferry:


Galveston Bay:

cherry season!

last two weeks (we're getting better and better)

ssmoked almonds, salt.lemons, zucchini


beef tartar, miso-aubergine, salat things

commandante noels work:

CHEF, THAT IS SOME EXTRAORDINARY PORN

great to see you've embraced fermentation at such levels

i know you mentioned it before but these are the first photos i see

what's in that crock? (the ceramic) and you making pancetta??? AWESOME

thanks. i knew you would reply.
fermentation is a weird technique, you can go in äny direction and ('frei nach bernhard') 'every produkt' is 'ein treffer'.

in the crock: (it's my mothers, we call it 'gärtopf') its pretty ordinary sauerkraut.
in kraut:
kraut - first i got from my gardener this season
honey - my friend yoshi makes honey - it's a good one
salt
zest

now i'm fermenting it as slowly s possible (we have like 666degrees in the fucking restaurant). i want summer-sauer-kraut.



the pancetta
yeah. first was more of a side project, turned out to much more fun than i thought...
if you are interested in this stuff i highly recommend Ruhlmann/Poleyn - charcuterie.
i cant use any of the recipes or 'scales' (american cooking book editors seem to have taste-bud-weiser-ZUVIELDESGUTEN), nevertheless... worth it. if you're into slaughtering and the gory things of our... being.

anyways,
i'm blabbering.

how are you? last i remember you were frustrated with your job and everything sucked a thousand balls.
hope that changed, and that the sun may shine out your nuss

here's the bread:

making meatballs today, last time I made them, the count was 310, this time I hope to get to 500

hey, chef, so, yeah, things don't suck so much right now. i'm actually enjoying it. i just hate deadlines. actually i'm on a tight deadline right now, suffering, and this is my escape/procrastination. i should get back to work! but i have attention deficit disorder.

i haven't slaughtered/butchered for about 18 months (fall/winter is when that happens). but not sure i will again. it makes my wife cry and cry to think of the dead animal. so i'm not sure i can go into charcuterie. we're sort-of-vegetarian at the moment. kinda. yeah. i'm doing mesophilic lactic cultures though-- room temperature stuff. cultures from finland, estonia, scandinavia. easy and lazy and makes a nice drinking thing, maybe buttermilk. piimä.

i was born and raised in the metric system so i get your frustration with the imperial units. they're medieval.

putting honey in the cabbage is a great idea! honey + water + time = mead. so is it a bit alcoholic? i've been thinking about making mead this summer but so far i've been jammed with deadlines-- not for horrible work-- just deadlines. which i hate. i hate time. time is horrible. but yeh-- i should make mead. you know what that is yes? honey wine.

those breads are a beauty. i don't use the oven in the summer because of the heat--- but i'm mentally dipping those loaves in olive oil with salt and a little crushed red pepper. or a french tomato salad.

i do make flatbreads though-- you can make those on the stove top or a grill. like a grilled pizza.

oh i should get back to work instead of talking about this fun stuff. i have about 10 hours to get on the highway and bring my work to some place and i'm not nearly done ha ha ha ha.

ha ha ha ha

let's see what happens

tomatoes are getting ripe. So, ciabatta slices with beefsteak tomato slices, fresh basil, parmesan, under the broiler!

Ham sandwich. Man...I can eat one of these every day as long as there are some chiles en vinagre on the side.

i came back from the road with a jar of trader joe's french roast cold brew

so just made a butter pecan coffee float

mix some butter pecan ice cream with cold coffee, add bubbly water, add a scoop of ice cream.

eat/drink

AWESOME

also had the creamiest lima beans for breakfast

so good

Boudain ball covered in crawfish etouffee

crab salad tonite, fresh red boston lettuce from the farmers market, homegrown diva cucumbers and beefsteak tomatoes, garlic bread, pitcher of gin and tonics

so tonite is a 2# flatiron braised in chipotles, onion and tons of garlic, will add anaheim peppers at the last minute, and a side of white beans, garlic, onions and fresh minced collard greens. Fresh corn tortillas from the tortelleria down the street with guacamole. Sliced beefsteak tomatoes and diva cucumbers. A pitcher of g&t, of course.

Finally Had That Candied Salmon. Fuck That Was Delicious.

holy fuck. that stuff IS awesome.

you should be able to find that at your local whole foods btw. might likely cost more there of course, but if you need a fix... they carry it sometimes

Had myself 20oz of eye of rib steak tonight.

it's SeptembeR. it's oyster night and three pitchers of beer. lose at pool and watch everyone with kids get drunk. there's also the guy with an eye patch and the dude that always wears a cast because he's retarded and doesn't need to be riding a scooter around. I like to light a cig inside just for the owner to come up and remind me, like he's forgotten a thousand times, that "you cant smoke in here". oh, really, ok.:p. lol.

i am drinking the champagne of beers

i had a nice spicy smelly bowl of menudo this morning

made a ton of it the other day and froze several weekends worth and it comes out great on reheat

i could have been paying 12 bucks a plate for this at mixtec ha ha ha ha

^good shit. Not too bad at the carniceria here. Like 12 bucks for a gallon of that stuff.

I could never get past the smell of that stuff. All my East LA friends think it's the fucking greatest, but it has even driven me out of the house on a -10F day

Honestly it depends on who makes it. I will not eat the stuff if it's not cleaned tripe. I will only eat it if I know who is making it. I tried eatin' that shit at my Gandma's back in the day and man did I make a mistake. It was one of the absolute worst things I have ever tasted.

that's a great price. i made a 6 quart pot. 4 bucks for the tripe, 3 maybe it was for the cow foot, maiz pozolero was maybe 4? i forget, but it's really good quality. and the spices another couple of bucks. i made it DEEP RED with intense chile flavor (used mild chile to get more flavor).


haaa haaa haaa! well if it's not properly cleaned (it gets washed with lime at the butcher) it might be major stank. i remember the smell of the whole house when i was a kid haaa ha ha.

i got the MORALES brand, washed, cut, and frozen, from walrats. has a nice funky smell but nothing overpowering. once cooked is sweet sweet goodness.

the grandparents used to have us all over for lutefisk. Grampy burned his own birch for the ashes to treat the stuff. Acquired taste for sure. I hated it as a kid, but began to like it pretty well by my 20's

yesterday's lunch was homemade hummus on toasted french bread topped with fresh beefsteak tomato slices served with BBQ chips!

i've never had lutefisk, i think-- only heard about it
you from minnesoter?

monkey dicks with texas pete and white crackers.

aka. vienna sausages with hot sauce and saltine crackers.

i'll accuse the fact that your on barbiturates and that you've never huffed polyurethane after bong hits and Jack shots. that gas addict rasta Such knows what im spittin.