How To Boil Water Redux

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Like Kevin, who doesn't want to lose "The Wine Thread", I don't want the "How To Boil Water" thread to slip into oblivion so I'm making an initial post just in case Lois isn't able to move the old threads over to our new joint.

We gotta have *some* threads that eschew politics!..............

"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are"

-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin-

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Sorry, double post. I hit the wrong button. Must be hungry..........

[Jimmy Cantiello]

The other day in the supermarket I was looking at the cheese and noticed that they hand parmesan rinds for sale. Parmesan rinds? I had no idea why anyone would want to buy parmesan cheese rinds so I did a Web search and came up with the following (note the second paragraph):

Tips for Grating Cheese

You can grate hard cheeses such as Parmesan in your food processor (some food processors have special blades just for cheese grating). Cut them into small cubes first, and make sure you remove the rind.


… but don't throw away the rind—hard cheese rinds are great for flavoring stocks, pasta water, soups and sauces. Use them the same way you would use a bone or stock vegetables, and remove them before serving. Cheese rinds are also most dog's favorite treat, so if you're not making stock you can find a deserving pup and make a friend for life!


Grate only what you need—grated cheese will lose flavor rapidly.


Hard cheeses may be kept in different ways—if the weather is cool, you can dampen a clean dishtowel, wring it out thoroughly, wrap it around your cheese and place it in a cool, dark corner of your kitchen. Use this method only if you plan to finish the cheese relatively quickly. If kept in the fridge, the cheese will last a long time—even a period of months—but the plastic wrap should be changed quite frequently.


If a firm cheese develops surface mold, don't worry—it won't harm you or the cheese. Just trim away the mold, then dip a clean cloth in white distilled vinegar (not wine vinegar), wipe the surface of the cheese thoroughly, allow it to dry for a few minutes, and rewrap in fresh plastic. This discourages the remaining mold spores and will not effect the flavor of the cheese.


Hard cheeses like Parmesan, Romano and aged Provolone, although high in fat, are excellent cheeses for a low-fat diet because they have intense flavor and may be grated fine. A tablespoon of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano on your pasta, soup or salad gives a wonderful taste for very little fat.


Grating cheeses give a lot of flavor to salad dressings—choose any one you like, grate a couple of tablespoons, and wisk into a simple vinaigrette.


Try the Italian custom of passing a piece of cheese and a small hand grater at the dinner table. It's festive, allows each person to grate just what they need, keeps the cheese fresher and saves you work, all at once.


Finely grated cheese may be added to the crust of a savory pie or tart (or a sweet one such as apple). A recipe for short crust with a generous addition of grated cheese makes instant treats or appetizers—roll it out and cut it into pretty shapes, or form into twists or small ball, then bake until brown.


To make cheese bread, add to your favorite bread recipe 1/2 cup each finely grated Sgrinz and one of the following: Grana, Asiago, or Parmesan. Simply stir the grated cheese into the sponge before adding the flour, then proceed as usual. When it's done, cut a big slice and toast it—it's worth it for the smell alone!


Finally, don't miss the wonderful potential of these cheeses as hors d'oeuvres or dessert. Shaved into thin curls with a cheese plane, surrounded with apple or pear slices or small pieces of sweet bread, these very complex and individual cheeses are an eating experience all by themselves.

[Ron Thorne]

Jimmy, you're a vertitable treasure trove of information! Now that you've given your wife a digital camera for Christmas, may we expect photos appearing on various food-related threads here at Jazz Corner?

Thanks for the cheese info, bubba!

I wonder if I should start a new chile and charcoal grillin' thread here? Lois is confident that everything will remain intact after the move and/or be archived, but I'm a little apprehensive, like you.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Ron,

I'd love to post some photos. Problem is, I don't have a clue on how to do it. Can you help me out?...................

[moneyp]

Jimmy, on your "Post Reply" page at the bottom there's an option to include attachments. Just link it to the photo that you want to post.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

That's easy for *you* to say but how do I do that?........

[Uli]

I found some use for parmesan rinds that sounds good. So far, I had only used it for dog treats:


Parmesan Oil

Degree of difficulty: Low
Preparation time:5 minutes
Cooking time: 8 hours

You need:

500gm left-over parmesan rinds
3 cups canola oil (vegetable oil, or a blend of canola & olive oil*)

Method:

Place parmesan rinds and oil in a heavy-based pot over very low heat for
about 8 hours. Allow to cool. Strain through a fine sieve (muslin cloth), pour
into a sterilised jar and seal.

*the olive oil has a stronger, fruity flavour that might overpower the flavour of
the infused oil

[Ron Thorne]

Jimmy, as Moné says, look for the words Attach file in the lower left portion of the Post Reply page. Click on the word Browse ... then locate the photo you want from wherever you have them stored in your computer, Desktop, My Documents ... wherever. Once you see the Choose File dialogue box, select the photo you want to attach, click on it and the photo file name should appear. When it does, click on the word Open in the lower right hand portion of that dialogue box. That should do it.

Give it a try.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Hey, Uli, stop talking about food! I'm trying to figure out some computer stuff. Holy shit, what am I saying?.....................

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Ron, I did what you said in your last post but the picture didn't show up when I previewed it. Here, let me try to post and see what happens.......

Well, I see it worked but it doesn't seem to work in the preview mode. BTW, that's my summer home. Man, am I gonna have fun with *this* feature. Thanks, guys.

[Ron Thorne]

Hey, way to go Antonio! I had faith in ya, buddy. Nice summer digs! Yeah, aren't the features on the new board going to spoil us to death?

Hey, Jimmy, now we need to give you a little primer on how to underline, italisize and utilize bold features on the new board, because the days of using CAPS or *asterisks* for emphasis are over, baby.

I'm still working my way through the various features, but have to say that so far I'm diggin' the new JC digs.

Jimmy, if you click on vB Code [help] in the upper left portion of the Post Reply page, you'll find out how do some cool stuff such as I demonstrated in my second paragraph.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Ron,

You and Mone have created a monster...........

[Elliot]

Mmmm, dog treats.


(posted by Elliot's dog, Daphne.)

[Ron Thorne]

Originally posted by Jimmy Cantiello
Ron,

You and Mone have created a monster...

I love it, Jimmy! See, it wasn't all that difficult. We'll have these tricks memorized in short order, I'm certain.

Damn, just think of all the fun we'll have sharing delicious recipes and food ideas with the added benefit of mouth-watering photos.

Also, we can share vacation photos, jazz event photos, etc.

[patricia]

Originally posted by Jimmy Cantiello
That's easy for *you* to say but how do I do that?........

After I saw your little summer cottage, besides being overcome with envy, it was pretty obvious that you discovered the secret of attaching documents.

BTW, thanks for the cheese info. I always thought that my mother did all that preserving stuff, because she was Scottish and cheap. Now, I find that regular people do it too.

[SinginSumo]

Very cool digs, Jimmy!

Here's hoping that this thread (or one similar to it) will feature more of Jimmy Cantiello's incisive restaurant critiques.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

So, SinginSumo, you used to live in Japan and you now reside in Ocean City, New Jersey?...............

[Pete C]

[bluenoter]

[bluenoter]

Up. I want *everyone* to see my beautiful ketchup and mustard (in the previous message).

[Pete C]

[bluenoter]

Blehhh OL!

[clinthopson]

Hey guys,

This site now looks a lot like those others.

Here's a great recipe I made last night.

Sole in Putanesca Sauce.

Make putanesca sauce, recipes are readily available. I use oil dried olives, big capers and oil packed anchovies with a lot of garlic, six sliced cloves in this instance. Cook the sauce for 30 mins.

Roll up 3 lbs of dover sole filets, lightly seasoned, and place in a baking dish. Cover with putanesca sauce and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Serve with pasta and salad.

I've had cod cooked the same way in a local Itralian place, but I like the flavor of sole better.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Glad to see you made it, Clint. I was getting worried that you had another fainting spell or something. You okay now?

BTW, I would think the red sauce would tend to overtake the delicate flavor of the sole, no?.................

[clinthopson]

I feel just dandy, Jimmy. Thanks for asking.

I would assume the same thing but the flavors are very complementary.

I'm going to try it with grouper.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Saturday, Joanne decided to go to one of our local supermarkets to buy a whole beef tenderloin that happened to be on sale. It was selling for $5.99 a pound. She asked if she should just bring the whole thing home so I could butcher it and cut it up into filets. I usually like to do it myself because the store guys usually rush and don't do a very good job. I was feeling lazy Saturday so I told her to have the guy at the store do it.

She bought a huge 11 lb. tenderloin. After it was trimmed and cut up, she ended up with 5 lbs. of steaks. You should have seen the look on her face when she walked in the door. She paid $5.99 a pound for about 6 lbs. of fat that was left at the store..................

[patricia]

Originally posted by Jimmy Cantiello
Saturday, Joanne decided to go to one of our local supermarkets to buy a whole beef tenderloin that happened to be on sale. It was selling for $5.99 a pound. She asked if she should just bring the whole thing home so I could butcher it and cut it up into filets. I usually like to do it myself because the store guys usually rush and don't do a very good job. I was feeling lazy Saturday so I told her to have the guy at the store do it.

She bought a huge 11 lb. tenderloin. After it was trimmed and cut up, she ended up with 5 lbs. of steaks. You should have seen the look on her face when she walked in the door. She paid $5.00 a pound for about 6 lbs. of fat that was left at the store..................

Yup. I guess the rationale is that she bought the whole shebang and would have thrown all that away, if she cut it up herself, the same as the store did. They're just, out of the goodness of their heart, doing it for her. Actually, I'm always surprised at the difference in the cost of a whole chicken, as opposed to parts. I mean, how hard is it to cut up a chicken? It's the same as us paying the same for the hambone and the fat on the outside and the rindy stuff, that we throw away, as we do for the ham itself. I'm convinced that that is at least part of the reason that the bone from a giant ham is used for peasoup. At least the cost of the thing is amortized over another use.

[clinthopson]

I think a better buy is a whole New York strip.

We had a birthdya party for daughter Jill Sunday. I picked up a whole NY strip at Costco (all USDA choice beef), cut off a 6lb section and dry aged it in the fridge for 4 days. I roasted it at 250 to 125 internal temp (about 1 3/4 hrs). They loved it.

I cut the rest into four thick steaks for future use. No waste whatsoever.

IMHO NY strip is a much more flavorful piece of meat than a filet, which has as it's main attraction, tenderness. When it is fully trimmed, a filet needs some kind of sauce to make it interesting while the nY can stand on its own..

I'm a tough guy so I'll go with the chewier NY. The meat has just the right amount of marbling to give it a great flavor.

On another subject, the plane graters (I can't remember the brand name) are fantastic. You can great the hardest Parmesan to light, fluffy consistency.

I have a little round one for nutmeg.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Clint, I couldn't agree with you more. My favorite steak is NY Strip............