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About. . .
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Bread
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Truffles
and Truffle Oil
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Soy
Sauce
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Balsamic
Vinegar
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Cooking
Oils
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Olive
Oil
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Dried
Pasta
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Salt
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Stocks
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Rice
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With
produce and meats, the key is buying at very
selected groceries (convenient and expensive) or
Farmers' Markets (inconvenient and cheap). With
other products, it's catch as catch can - some are
easily available at any Safeway, some need to be
searched out in gourmet groceries like Dean &
Deluca. Here's a list of products that we've been
very happy with indeed and a few we haven't. It's
not meant to be comprehensive, so feel free to turn
us on to those great products YOU'VE discovered,
and we'll try 'em and share the wealth.
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Bread:
That's pretty much
a local thing, so (with one exception) this will be useless to
anyone outside of the Bay area. Acme makes absolutely ungodly
bread, with a perfect texture and lightness, plenty of flavor,
and that crispy outer crust we love so well. If you can't find
Acme, then by all means search out Metropolis. Go for their Altamura,
which has a dash of semolina flour in the mix. Basque Bakery (in
Sonoma) is a must-visit if you're in that area. If you can get
the little cheesy twisted jobs fresh from the oven, be prepared
to change your underwear. And for Southern Californians, there
is (or was) a little bakery in Camarillo ("Paris Baguette") that
is worth a hundred mile detour. The best baguettes this side of
the Atlantic, croissants that shame 95% of what you can buy in
France, killer petit pain au chocolate, and little fruit-filled
chausses that must have about a pound of butter per chausse.
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Soy
Sauce: Boy,
does soy make a difference! We cook a lot of Asian, and the difference
between using a great soy sauce and your basic Wisconsin substitute
is startling. For a medium soy sauce (most often used), we highly
recommend Silver Swan. The depth and complexity of flavor is superb,
and there's a hint of bright light peeping through the dark soy
richness. Mushroom soy sauces are a hoot, and can make a nice
alternative to fish sauces for the veggies among us- a really
good one is Pearl River Bridge. There are some Thai versions ("see-eu
kao het hom") that are a little brighter and saltier, if that's
what your dish calls for. PRB also makes a very good light soy
sauce.
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Cooking
oils: Peanut
oils have a high smoke point and are great for
frying, but most of them are pretty neutral in
aroma and flavor. For our Asian stuff, where the
peanutty aromas are part of the dish, there's only
one choice: Globe and Lion peanut oil. The G &
L can has some Chinese pictographs on it which no
doubt translate to, "Let a thousand peanuts roast."
Great stuff.
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Dried
Pasta: We've
tried 'em all. Though there were some
super-expensive artisinal ones that were really
excellent, we keep coming back to the mass-produced
Barilla. The difference between Barilla and the
American mass-produced brands is startling; the
difference between Barilla and the artisinal stuff
is subtle at best. We'll save the money here and
use it for some more truffle
oil.
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Stocks:
By and
large, we make our own. Bouillon cubes, dried
stocks, and the like yield harsh, salty results.
Canned stocks are usually too salty and a bit
metallic. One happy exception is the
widely-available Swanson Vegetable Stock. It's not
quite as good as our home-made roasted vegetable
stock, but it doesn't have the flaws that we find
in other pre-made stocks. For a dish where the
stock stands nearly alone (e.g., tortellini en
brodo), don't screw around, make your own stock and
save the Swanson for your next batch of Roasted
Pepper and Cilantro Soup.
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Truffles
and Truffle Oil:
There's
only two things we don't like about truffles;
they're more expensive than cocaine and they're
only available for a small part of the year. There
are a few brands of truffles packed in oil in a
jar. They are all remarkably free of any truffle
aroma or flavor. Some of the pastes are pretty
good, but when we're having our truffle jones in
May, white truffle oil does the trick. Sulpizio and
Agribosco are two brands that we have had good
results with. Expensive? Yes. Mortgage your entire
family for a 2 ounce bottle? No. you can spend a
lot more money and not get better results. You can
also fool yourself a bit by using dried death
trumpets, ground fine and added to a dish a minute
or two before it's done cooking, but really, when
you want truffles, only truffles will do.
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Balsamic
vinegar: Balsamic
vinegar should be a staple in any household, it
certainly is in ours. We've used it in just about
everything (helpful hint: doesn't work well in
curry). There are many grades and ages. The mass
produced stuff you find at Costco works just fine
for 90% of the dishes you need it for. When it
comes to using it as a condiment however, quality
is the key. Find a bottle that has at least 20
years of age on it (this is not extreme, we've had
200 year old stuff that necessitated changing our
underwear but it was well worth it), take out a
second mortgage and buy it. It should run you about
$60 for a 375ml bottle. It should also last you at
least a year. Drizzle it frugally. Our recipes tell
you when to use it.
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Olive
oil: Here's
a slippery subject. Don't go buying the best extra
virgin olive oil to fry fish in. The 3 liter jug
from Costco, which runs all of about 10 bucks, is
perfectly fine. As with balsamic vinegar, you need
the good stuff when it is used as a condiment. A
rule of thumb, use oil from the region where your
dish originates-Tuscan oil for drizzling over osso
bucco, Provencal oil for drizzling over our White
Sea Bass Provencal recipe, Spanish olive oil for
tapas etc.... If you don't care to have a dozen
different olive oils around the house, at least
make sure the one you buy is a good one. The best
usually run between $25 and $40 for a 750 ml
bottle. Please avoid the designer oils from Napa
Valley and California in general. Although some can
be decent, all are grossly overpriced. The one
exception is the Extra Virgin Oil from the Napa
Valley Olive Oil Company that comes in that nifty
Lestoil bottle. They pack the same thing in a
designer bottle with a wax seal that sells for five
times the price.
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Salt:
"Salt?
What the hell difference does it make what salt I
use?" you must be saying to yourself. Tell ya'
what, it makes a difference. Boiling pasta? Use the
70 cent house brand from whatever grocery store you
go to. Salting a dish? Use Baleine "Sel de Mer
Fin". It's $4 for a one pound, 10 ounce container.
It will last you quite a while. As a condiment, you
must go with coarse sea salt. Although you can
spend six bucks for a 125 gram container of La
Salorge "Fleur de Sel", you can find the same stuff
in a one kilogram bag at your finer gourmet shops
for the same price but it doesn't have Tim
Mondavi's personal blessing. Sprinkle over
everything, even ice cream (well, maybe not ice
cream) until you find out where it works
best.
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Rice: Different
horses for different courses. For risottos, besides the usual
Arborio (Trader Joe's sells a very good one), Carnaroli makes
a fabulous dish. It's got a niftier texture than arborio, more
of an al dente center without feeling undercooked. For a looser,
saucier risotto, Vialone Nano will do the trick. And it also cooks
up with an al dente feel to it. The best I've tried came from
Italy in my suitcase, branded Serghio Alighieri.
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