A Comment! A Comment!
You’ll have to forgive my excitement, but it’s my first one. I’ve gotten so used to seeing all those little zeroes at the bottom of the posts, I never check for them. This one came from a good friend (and world-class chef) by the name of Tim Coonan, in regard to the (possible) Arab origins of puff pastry. He writes:
You made me think of a time in Seville when an Israeli woman made me a pastry out of water, flour, margarine (I forgave her for that), sugar and cinnamon. She folded the fat into the dough and turned it several times, just like puff pastry. After a few turns she began to sprinkle in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. What she ended up with when she cut and baked it were vertical palmiers. I recall them being a real treat. I truly think that most European foods, if they were fully traced, would be found to have originated in the Middle East.
For an outstanding exploration of the topic (not to mention some very fine recipes), you couldn’t do better than this book by Clifford Wright. Oh, and palmiers, by the way, are these guys.
Hey Joe….
Why yes, yes I did! I when clickity click and poof! went back in time to 2006. (So many more posts to go….) Reading your blog from newest to earlier just wasn’t working well so I decided to start from the beginning. As an added plus, I’m enjoying seeing your blog evolve.
To the point of this comment….I guess your friend Tim realized that the Israeli woman was most likely making her pastries parve so they could be eaten with both dairy and meat items. Yes?
🙂
Pepper
[I did read as far as your post about the spam issue while initially working backwards through your blog.]
Holy cow, Pepper, you really are diving deep. I have no idea what oddities and contradictions may await you in those dark depths. Let me know if you find anything egregious!
– Joe
I’ll also say I was a little more excitable back then, given to defensiveness and cant. I’ve since come to realize there’s little that’s worthwhile in e-confrontations…unless they;re with Michael Pollan! 😉
– Joe