Thread: cuisine with Chef Zambini

Originally Posted by Slick

Zam, how bout a tomato sauce recipe? I don't like my old lady's recipe and the next time we do pasta with a red sauce, I want to try something different.

she may be using an herb that disagrees with your palate.
before you trash her entire effort, isolate the herbs she uses and see if one is bothersom to you.
make some scrambled eggs.
add a little of each herb to the eggs, one at a time and taste.
this will help you identify what you like and dont like.

Zam, I dont doctor up Ragu, I doctor up Prego. But IMO the key to my sauce is the seasoned meat. It varies depending on what meat i use, ground turkey, or ground red meat.

Originally Posted by Chef Zambini

Bouillabaisse

Thanks Chef. Not sure where I'm going to finde sea urchins. I suspect long neck clams would do. I'll give this a try in one of the upcoming weekends.

the recipe calls for only the coral of the erchin, perhaps caviar, domestic, makes a resonable substitution.
anyway, the vital elements are the freshness of the fish, the combination of shellfish and mullosks and the technique in extracting all the flavor via this methodology.

I mis-typed, I actually do use PREGO vs Ragu, my bad.
one neeed only read the list of ingredients or open one of each, side by side to see the superior quality of the prego over ragu.

Originally Posted by NightTerror218

Zam, I dont doctor up Ragu, I doctor up Prego. But IMO the key to my sauce is the seasoned meat. It varies depending on what meat i use, ground turkey, or ground red meat.

BINGO always season and brown your meats first, PRIOR to the application of any sauce.
the one exception being a marinade.

Originally Posted by Chef Zambini

BINGO always season and brown your meats first, PRIOR to the application of any sauce.
the one exception being a marinade.

A Brine or Rub falls in that category as well (assuming that by season you mean just salt and pepper)

A cure would constitute a marinade, dry marinade, to be specific.
Both dry cure and marinade can be the exclusive method of making a protein "edible' or cooked.
but may also serve as just a primary form of flavoring before a more traditional cooking method (bake, roast, grill, or braise) can be applied as the final and usually more dominant cooking method.

Originally Posted by Thnikkaman

A Brine or Rub falls in that category as well (assuming that by season you mean just salt and pepper)

" BINGO always season and brown your meats first, PRIOR to the application of any sauce.
the one exception being a marinade. "


this qoute, from me, relates specificly to BBQ methodology.
baby back ribs,
to drown these in sauce before seasoning and browning is culinary blasphemy.
now a brisket or a huge St. lous slab, thats something different.
I recognize the value of a marinaid with those cuts of meat.
Beef short ribs too.
chicken breast, very '70's.

Zam Im looking for a good raccoon and rat stew recipe, anything come to mind? is it pretty tender meat or do I need to do anything with it?

I would reccomend a good soak in vinegar and baking soda to remove the tread mark flavor out of the racoon, rat on a stick has always been my favorite.

Originally Posted by Chef Zambini

" BINGO always season and brown your meats first, PRIOR to the application of any sauce.
the one exception being a marinade. "


this qoute, from me, relates specificly to BBQ methodology.
baby back ribs,
to drown these in sauce before seasoning and browning is culinary blasphemy.
now a brisket or a huge St. lous slab, thats something different.
I recognize the value of a marinaid with those cuts of meat.
Beef short ribs too.
chicken breast, very '70's.

My apology, the key word that I must have blown over in the statement I quoted was the word sauce.

no apology needed!
great cooking comes from the heart, passion is always part of the recipe.

Zam thanks for making me hungry I am going to make me some ribs tomorrow. I use a home made dry rub and BBQ indirect heat (and smoke) for about 3 hours (depending on how hot the charcoal gets) and then direct heat for about 10 mins with some sweet baby rays. The ribs I get never have that "layer" on them that needs to be removed first. i have never tried a brine and I never marinade ribs.

Originally Posted by NightTerror218

Zam thanks for making me hungry I am going to make me some ribs tomorrow. I use a home made dry rub and BBQ indirect heat (and smoke) for about 3 hours (depending on how hot the charcoal gets) and then direct heat for about 10 mins with some sweet baby rays. The ribs I get never have that "layer" on them that needs to be removed first. i have never tried a brine and I never marinade ribs.

We made the mistake of brining ribs once. They came out super salty. Brining is great for things like a brisket (Corned beef is basically brined) and pork shoulder since they are muscle groups that get used a lot so they have lots of connective tissue.