<p>I love Jamie Oliver and his books too. Delia Smith is another of my favorites. </p>
<p>I’m going to take your Prudhomme recommendation idad. btw, I heard Commander’s Palace reopened. A longtime New Orleans fixutre was in town for a visit and he told me the Garden District neighbors raided the Palace wine cellar during the Hurricane! </p>
<p>xiggi…hon…Christmas break running a few weeks too long for you? The Food Network? I coulda lost major dough betting that you’d never post that topic… ;)</p>
<p>“Lousiana Kitchen” is fantastic. The section on making a roux, including a page of color photos of every step from white to tan to light brown to dark brown to brick red to black as you continue cooking it is worth the price of the book. Taking a roux to near-black for a gumbo will give any cook the confidence to handle bechamel cream sauces, turkey gravy, etc. It’s one of those fundamental techniques and Prudhomme explains it better than anyone – Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, you name it. He also emphasizes a crucial point: do NOT splash hot roux on your hand. He also drives home the sauted trilogy (onions, carrots, celery) that is the base for just about every soup, stew, and pot roast in the world. </p>
<p>For me to recommend a cookbook as “great”, it has to have more than recipes: it has to be a basic primer in the techniques, seasonings, and ingredients for that particular cuisine. I actually started learning how to cook when my wife gave me “Lousiana Kitchen” for Christmas many years ago. I didn’t have the first clue and was turning out good Lousiana dishes from the start.</p>
<p>Lousiana Kitchen is mostly N’Awlins dishes. “Seasoned America” is an unbelievably good collection of regional specialties from around the United States. I’ve never seen a New England Clam chowder recipe that even comes close (no flour, thickened with grated potatoes).</p>
<p>Prudhomme’s cookbooks are fantastically detailed – stir this for 3 minutes, add that, simmer for 6 minutes, etc. Great stuff to build confidence in complicated dishes, even for inexperienced cooks.</p>
<p>Could be! Well, we could always play FN trivia. Maybe we could include the difference between the french mirepoix (see Idad’s post) and the Blackened Everything Country’s version, or the difference between real beignets and the frozen sopapillas served in one famous place! :)</p>
<p>The French would tend to just lightly sautee the veggie base for a soup or stew. Paul Prudhomme is very specific about sauteeing over high heat until they begin to stick to the bottom of the pan. Then, when you add the stock and deglaze the bottom of the pan, you get strong flavors. In his “South Miami Cuban Stew” recipe (a nice zingy beef and chorizio sausage stew), he actually adds a second batch of onions, celery, and peppers later in the cooking process. These don’t break down like the initial sauteed batch – a good trick for pot roasts, too.</p>
<p>The intensely sauteed onions approach is taken even a step further in the Indian dish, Lamb Vinadaloo. The Vindaloo paste is made with base of onions sauteed until they they are deep brown and carmelized – as dark as you can get them without burning.</p>
<p>“Alton’s whole shtick comes from a book called Cookwise, a veritable encyclopedia of food science.”</p>
<p>Don’t care, just enjoy the program. I had already read his start was behind the camera, he just branched out. I loved his cross country motorcycle trip. He entertains and gives you some pointers, beyond that I’m happy with it.</p>
<p>“I enjoy Mario. But, the man on the Food Network is Bobby Flay.” </p>
<p>I used to like BF too, I liked his reciepes and grilling show. Great for the summer time. However, that stupid cooking challenge show he did just ****ed me off from the get go. The first show he challenges a clam chower maker to a contest and then produces lobster chower to trump his clam chower… duh? How fair is that? I’m going to challenge you to better your reciepe by using an unlimited budget to outquality you into the ground… Someone in planning that show should have said “Bobby if the guy you’re competing against spends $50 bucks for ingredients, you can’t spend $500 and call it a fair competition.” </p>
<p>I take pride in my cooking and if somebody showed up to challenge my best dishes and then proceeded to outspend me 10 to 1, I don’t know if I’d call it a competition. Just like a couple of them cook with so much fat how can the stuff they make NOT taste good? try making it lower fat and still favorful. </p>
<p>I’ll get over Flay and I like the cajun as well. The Food N has introduced me and mine to several different cultural dishes that are pretty darn good.</p>
<p>I-dad, you hinted on the difference when you wrote, “he actually adds a **second batch of onions, celery, and peppers ** later in the cooking process.” </p>
<p>The difference is that bell peppers are not present in the classic mirepoix. But, based on your two posts on the subject, I know you knew that! :)</p>
<p>There are a finite number of hours in a day, and what would most of us rather do - watch a very entertaining and informative TV show with a very talented host…or read a food encyclopedia :)</p>
<p>I still stand by my impression of Bobby Flay…he does the same thing (burn the food) on his show BBQ with Bobby Flay. I strongly suspect it’s on purpose, but one of my pet peeves is burned food and I don’t particularly care if it’s supposed to be that way or not.</p>
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<p>Actually, the “french” would not do such a thing as that would not qualify as a saut? in the first place. A saut? always requires very hot, dry heating to brown the food thoroughly to get those wonderful flavors. Indeed, most of the time people don’t saut? the veggies, but rather sweat them…which performs a different (and also desirable) function.</p>
<p>Besides the mix of veggies, you already mentioned the major difference between Prudhomme’s “saut?” and a “true” saut?. The word “saut?” in french means “jumped” and that refers to the fact that you constantly keep the food moving, which is somewhat different from letting it stick to the pan and deglazing.</p>
<p>Me, I think Emeril is a hoot. It’s the same script every time, and yet the audience always manages to look surprised. But I’ll admit I’m not going to turn to Emeril for cooking advice.</p>
<p>There are several local restaurants where you can sit at the “bar” and watch the cooks. I really enjoy doing that. I’ve learned a lot that way. I’ve noticed, too, that the last step in many restaurant recipes is to add a flourish or two that “kicks it up a notch”–a bit of salsa, some parmesan cheese, some freshly chopped herbs.</p>
<p>Cheers,
My H cooks with a timer in hand…or maybe I should say he watches TV with a timer in hand while something cooks. </p>
<p>I, on the other hand, cook until it is done…or if I’m multitasking, until someone asks what’s burning. I also am a recipe skimmer, more of a taste and adjust type cook than a precise measurer.</p>
<p>I’ll confess to not being very systematic in my approach, but the final product is usually quite tasty.</p>
<p>Emeril is a real cook, with real credentials from Commander’s, as noted. I do find his show annoying, it is more entertainment than cooking.
Commander’s has re-opened, it is a great NO institution, both my kids had coming of age dinners there in the pre-Katrina days. My son’s, which was his first dress-up affair at age 8, was wonderful, they treated him like a king.</p>
<p>Alton Brown did lean heavily on the ideas of Cookwise, especially early on, but he gave the author her due, she made regular appearances for the first couple of seasons. AB’s recipes are the greatest, but his techniques are super. Roast turkey, French fries and mac and cheese to die for.</p>
<p>My FIL is in love with Giada - family joke - the rest of us just want to know if she ever eats anything, how could she.</p>
<p>Did anyone see the Iron Chef episode over the holidays where they had the cook-off with Flay, Batali, Giada and Rachael Ray??</p>
<p>You gotta see Ciscoe, a classical figure if ever.</p>
<p>Graham Kerr lives up on Camano Island and has given up alcohol and works on diabetic friendly recipes now. His old show was how to make food and get a buzz in 30 minutes or less. You couldn’t always guess which would come first the food or the buzz.</p>
<p>Bobby Flay may be a fine cook, but he comes across as kind of jackassy. I love Alton Brown. I don’t think he’s the greatest resource for recipes, but you can learn techniques that work. </p>
<p>I remember seeing Prudhomme on PBS, he had eyeballed 2 cups of something, and he decided to pour it back into a measuring cup to see how close he was. He was exactly on the mark. </p>
<p>I used to love the Frugal Gourmet, back before he was accused of pedophilia and disappeared off the TV. </p>
<p>The cooking show on the Food Network I use the most is Rachel Ray, even though her voice annoys me and I hate all her little cutesy sayings. I have made several of her recipes and they have all been winners with my family.</p>
<p>Whoops, I meant to say Alton Brown’s recipes AREN’T the greatest, but is technique demonstrations are super.
If you don’t believe me, try the Tater Tot-Blue Cheese casserole sometime, I think it was a joke.</p>
<p>“The cooking show on the Food Network I use the most is Rachel Ray, even though her voice annoys me and I hate all her little cutesy sayings. I have made several of her recipes and they have all been winners with my family.”</p>
<p>If you could just “mute” parts of the show, like everything besides the receipe. EVOO has become another 4 letter swear word in our house.</p>
<p>I watched Rev. Jeff Smith’s "Frugal Gourmet’ regularly when it was on. Got his autograph too at a book signing. As for his other ‘obsession,’ I guess you can never tell about people.</p>
<p>I agree, Emeril’s original show was much more enjoyable. I still like him but I don’t watch the live show. Critics of his books say that a lot of his recipes don’t work.</p>
<p>Alton Brown is a hoot. I just bought his DVD set.</p>
<p>I fell in love with Paula Deen the first time I heard her low country accent. I Was quite heartbroken when she married that guy who looks like Santa Claus. Her sons’ show is a dud. They have little of their mother’s charm and are completely uninteresting.</p>
<p>I really miss the late Justin Wilson, that Cajun with the red suspenders and “shicken”. His stuff was simple and tasty. “I garuntee.”</p>