Man it's cold outside!!

[cape chef]

I know we have discussed this in the past,but seeing we have so many new members I thought we could touch base again.

I know not everyone is living in the freezing cold (here it's supposed to get down to almost 0)

I love cooking comfort food in the winter,especialy braises.

Tonight is a braise of lamb shank with apricots (dried)lemon zest,rosemary and lots of garlic. The kitchen smell terrific and the wine is open.

Tell me,what do you love to cook on those dark cold nights with the fire blazing?

[kokopuffs]

Rabbit braised in Guinness beer along with very simple side dishes and a lemon souffle to balance things out.

BTW, I'll be right over.

[Mezzaluna]

Good old pot roast!

I have a hankering for what my grandmother called "g'dempte chicken"- braised chicken. It included poor man's kishke. As if 'real' kishke weren't simple enough- beef or sheep sausage casing filled with flour, rendered chicken or beef fat, onions and seasonings . The even simpler version, called helzel, is made with trimmed chicken neck skins instead of casings, sewn up with cotton thread and cooked in with the braising pot. You have to grow up on that kind of thing to appreciate it! I do have an 8 pound roasting chicken in the freezer; I guess I could use that, couldn't I? Wouldn't have the flavor of an old hen, but those are hard to find where I live. Think I'll skip the helzel....

[chef1x]

{drool}

Oh man!! Lamb shank and apricots! Fireplace!

Rabbit and Guiness!! (gasp!)

Pot Roast, Yum! (I dunno bout the other stuff Mezz! )

I must say, I am VERY envious if that's what yer eating.

CC, freezing here, I think they're saying wind chill is below zero, that hasn't happened here in a while.

ANYWAY, I was fortunate enough to have a starter of potato leek soup, then Osso Bucco (By that I just mean a cross cut veal shank, we like roasting big cuts of meat this time of year) over toasted barley, butternut squash, fricasse of porcinis, more leeks...ohhhh. ONLY because it's my birthday month.

NORMALLY I would be content with a nice stew and crusty bread.

Drinking cheap aussie and chilean wines right now, and I enjoy a good single malt.

CC, how 'bout you? I'm betting you enjoy a good cognac or something similar?

I'm imagining my space heater as a roaring fireplace

And I have to say the dishes you mention are among my all time favorites. I love lamb and bunny! Tasty and lean.

[cape chef]

Mezz,

You bring back fond memories

Koko, I would invite you over but theres nothing left! Next time.

The lamb was excellent if I may say so myself. Drank a couple bottles of fitou from the Languedoc that worked like a charm.

Chef1x, there was a time I drank brandy and the like,but I lost my desire for them after I discoveried vintage Ports.

[Athenaeus]

Trahana!

Do you know what is this?

[cape chef]

Sour dough soup?

[Athenaeus]

Just testng if you got rusty...

[cape chef]

Originally posted by Athenaeus
Just testng if you got rusty...

Not rusty, wiser!!

And I still love Greek food

[chef1x]

What exactly is sour dough soup? What else is in it? Love all med. food myself.

Hmm, CC, since you like all those wines, I pegged you for a cognac drinker. I love a good port myself, don't drink them as much these days 'cause I'm supposed to lay off the sugary stuff, but I indulge now and then.

A nice port, a roaring fire, a good cigar on a cold winter night?

Did I mention that I scored a whole case of Quinta do Noval '91 port and I have one Quinta '70. I don't know what the heck I'll do with it all; not like I have a wine cellar

What's on for tonight?

I'm solo tonight so I thought I'd make a nice consomme with a bruonise of vegs. Haven't done that in years, but I need to practice my frenchy skills ya know, just in case

[kokopuffs]

Chef1X:

You really need to send me the '70 Quinto asap. NOW!

[Athenaeus]

Originally posted by chef1x
What exactly is sour dough soup? What else is in it? Love all med. food myself.

Hi chef1x sour dough soup, trahana or tarhana, in the dialects of Middle East is a tiny peppled shaped pasta.
Usually is made with semolina or wheat flour mixed with yoghurt or buttermilk.

In Greece we make two kinds of trahana:
The sour trahana anad the sweet trahana.

The sour is more popular. It's made with flour kneaded with the rich milk of August. The first 15 days of August are days of fast, so in the country side where they keep they Ortodox calender there is abudance of milk. In August they prepare the best trahana!
So, after you have kneaded the dough you let it rest in heat so it sours a little, then the dough is broken onto small pieces and dried under the sun.

Sour trahana is cooked as a soup in water or broth or milk.

Trahana is consumed all over the Balkans and as far as Persia!

It was an easy way to preserve food with high nutritional values as wheat and milk.
Since you live in NYC go to Astoria and ask for some trahana. Greeks are delighted to cook such things

And I still love Greek food

Yeah, I know Cape Chef. Once you've tasted Greek Food is difficult to forget it.

[cape chef]

Have you made her Kotosoupa Me Trahara?

It seems very nice,it's on page 226 of The Glorious Foods of Greece.

[chiffonade]

I live in the Tampa area and it was 28 degrees when I woke up this morning! I have a bubbling stew on the stove - large chunks of pork and dark meat chicken with marsala, cremini, pearl onions (and later will add carrots).

We're gearing up for the big game here - 30 minutes to go! It will probably be pretty cold in Philly - but let me tell you, Florida or not - it was cold here today. Nothing warms the soul or the belly like a long-cooked stew.

[Athenaeus]

Funny Cape Chef I have just made some , I took a dish and I came here to have it in the Cafe

No, I usually make the simple variation with water.
1 cup trahana 5 cups water + milk ( about half cup) some salt there it is.

You know, I am not so fond of the american habit of using broths in making soups.Rarely in Greece we make trahana soup with chicken broth