alanamoana

Kerry, it sounds interesting and they look really good. If you check out the Manresa thread in the California forum, you'll see that they do parallel pate de fruit for amuse bouche and mignardise at the end of the meal: the meal starts with black olive madeleines and a roasted red pepper pate de fruit and the meal ends with chocolate medeleines and a red fruit pate de fruit (raspberry or strawberry). i liked the roasted red pepper flavor because it was a bit smokey and even a tiny bit of heat (that was probably added as bells don't have much heat). but i do think that they ended up being a bit too sweet for my taste as it is meant to be savory. Anyway, good job experimenting. Do you have Paco Torreblanca's pastry book? He has a different method for making pate de fruit to get different results from the standard. Thanks for keeping the thread alive!

i made these last weekend. i hadn't made croissant dough since culinary school and i had to make them for a job tryout...these came out great, the ones i made at the actual tryout came out a little less than great

to base an answer directly on your question: it should be safe...but... the reason copper is supposed to be great for caramelizing sugar is the even heat conducting of the copper itself. there might be some reaction with the sugar (???) that can help inhibit crystallization as well. if you're making a caramel sauce, crystallization isn't so much of a concern because you've cooked the caramel to a certain point and then you're adding other ingredients anyway. so to be perfectly safe, if you're making caramel sauce, don't worry about using your copper pot. copper candy pots are pretty darn expensive as well. some of the smaller ones are close to $100 if not more. they really don't have sufficient volume to make larger batches of caramel candies or sauces anyway because of the bubbling up when adding other ingredients. if you're making reasonable sized batches, you'd need a much larger pot...which can cost a lot more than $100. i would think if you're concerned at all, just get a really good quality heavy duty large volumed pot or pan (think: all clad), which would also be expensive, but would be good for multiple purposes instead of only one specific use. edited to add: if you're dead set on getting copper, you can always get something that's got copper sandwiched in the middle so that you get the benefits of the even heating without the risk of it leaching into your product. besides, in most restaurants and other professional environments, it is rare to see copper pots being used regularly.

no worries, mate! i know you're just too busy eating shrimp on the barbie and drinking fosters to fully understand that you're living in norcal (hope you got that i'm kidding) at any rate, here's the Trader Joe's website, so you can find a location near you! and Whole Foods too. how long will you be in the area, and where are you from in australia? i have a friend in sydney, and i have to say that the freshness of the food and produce there is something lacking here (even though we live near where quite a bit of food is grown for the entire united states!!!). don't know if you're familiar with el camino real, but it is a VEEEEEERRRRRYYYYYY LOOOOOOOOOONG road (i think there are segments all the way down in socal 400 miles away)...the section i'm referring to is a length that runs east/west between Mary Avenue and the Airport. maybe someone else can correct me if i'm wrong, but that's where i've seen the concentration of korean and indian subcontinent based groceries. best, alana

thanks for the update AnnaN, they look delicious even if they aren't the same as the "real" thing. i love that the gadget is actually electric! the curl crazy is probably from an "as seen on tv" store the other day, i went to arby's just to have some curly fries. see what your thread has me doing?!

MaxH, Le Petit Bistro sounds like our kind of place. We'll definitely check it out. Although we only moved here about six months ago, we're enjoying it immensely. A bit nervous at first because we were coming from New York City (NEW YORK CITY?!) and even though I had lived in San Francisco, we weren't sure what to expect. We've been pleasantly surprised on just about every count. As soon as my husband can get down to a normal work schedule, we'll be checking out all kinds of restaurants. Thanks for your informative post. Alana

maybe a moderator can change the title of this thread as it may be misleading. milpitas is most definitely NOT socal . so if someone can change it to norcal or bay area, that might help the search. i do agree with andie though, trader joe's has great dairy products at very reasonable prices. their brand of butter is $1.99/pound compared with a minimum of $3.50/pound at the local safeway or albertsons. ranch 99 won't have great dairy products because it is a chinese chain. the chinese aren't really known for their love of dairy items . you can always check out "whole paycheck" (whole foods) as there are lots in the area. there are also some year round farmers' markets. I think the majority of which are located in San Jose, Campbell, Cupertino, Los Altos, Mountain View, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale which are all a quick drive from Milpitas. You can probably get decent fruit/vegetables there. here's a link, hope it works that gives locations for farmers' markets, etc. other than that, i think there are so many little ethnic groceries (like in the other thread where you asked about mexican stores) that have good/cheap produce to check out that you'll be kept busy. el camino real in sunnyvale/santa clara has a ton of korean markets and also indian groceries.

isn't that a bit strange...this is the web, isn't it? and there are some people here that are well informed...and there's other information on the web aside from eGullet that can lead you astray. hopefully people are smart enough to use their common sense to figure out what is right and wrong.Yep. And people here can be, and usually are, very well-informed. But people here also can pass on uninformed rumor, opinion and speculation. If you read back through this thread, you'll see that there are some conflicting opinions. And that would be at least somewhat confusing to me, if I were the one that had asked the question. Reading this thread, I still might not be comfortable with any conclusion. And since I personally did quite a bit of research on this issue when I brought home my copper pots from Mexico, I know that there are official, scientific, documented conclusions elsewhere on the web. I think this is a great place to start, for most anything food and cooking related. It's particularly wonderful when there's general consensus here. But when opinions here conflict, I suggest that one search further. And I still do. ← i agree with you. just playing devil's advocate. i would just hope that people have enough sense to use more than one source...in life, not just culinary matters. then again, maybe it does have to be pointed out now and again

isn't that a bit strange...this is the web, isn't it? and there are some people here that are well informed...and there's other information on the web aside from eGullet that can lead you astray. hopefully people are smart enough to use their common sense to figure out what is right and wrong.

ohh, i want to take that class also...i'll be starting a new job, we'll see if i can get the time off. congratulations on a job well done! your chocolates are beautiful and i'm sure your friend (and the guests) loved them all.

now that is a thing of beauty, vanessa! man, i love bread.

creh-mooooo edited to add: i am kidding...

McDuff, that's just what i needed! for me...i'll never again... agree to make two special cakes, on short notice, from my home kitchen, without the right tools and then to top it off use recipes that i've never tried before..."just to see how they work"...let's just say the cakes need to be done tomorrow and i'm not prepared!

depends on how much pre-ferment you're using as a total percentage of your dough. three hours isn't really that long in terms of developing flavor. a lot of bakers are believers in overnight retarding of the dough (shaped or not) to help develop deeper flavor and to get that really beautiful blistering of the crust during baking. you might want to try making two loaves as an experiment: baking one right away and retarding one overnight and then bringing to room temp and baking the next day. see if there is a noticeable difference in crust/color development. also, the amount of salt in the recipe can affect the color. i've seen some bread baked where the salt was (accidentally) omitted and it bakes to a pale unappetizing sandy color.

Thank you for disclosing all of the aspects of the deal. It is par for the course on eGullet to NOT take anything at face value and to get a lot of points of view on any subject for better or worse. I agree, the possible items to choose from are always going to exceed my budget and right now I don't have a budget at all as I'm not in business yet and may never be. I certainly respect your desire to organize a group buy and do the research. I hope enough people participate to make it worth your while. Regards, Alana

c. sapidus, i thought you knew how to make caramel?! at one of my first jobs out of culinary school i was making a big batch of caramel sauce. the instructions were to strain it through a chinois after cooking. kind of watching myself do this in slow motion, realizing that leaving the spoon in the pot while i'm straining is a bad idea...as the spoon flips out of the pot and slaps me in the face... talk about napalm! that was the only burn i ever took care of as it was on my face. i used a first aid burn gel (aloe and stuff), then vitamin E oil like every half hour for several days. it didn't scar, thank goodness! but it did look a mess while healing.

i've never regularly eaten oatmeal, but a while back my husband asked me to buy some of the instant packets. safeway had a sale...2 for 1 so i bought two big boxes. of course, my husband never ate any!!! so i rediscovered them the other day and i added a spoonful of labne (really thick yogurt almost like creme fraiche) and some fresh blueberries (after heating in micro)...really good! now i'm considering making oatmeal a regular breakfast.

it'll all come around again...you know the japanese love that french stuff! it's funny that they want to teach people that stuff in culinary school but nobody ever ends up making it! same can be said of a lot of old school meat dishes: wellington anyone? pate en croute? if patissiers are endangered species than dishes like that will really disappear because the chef is always running over to pastry to ask them to make some dough "for a special i want to run". but i gues we're straying off topic. please continue with your cooking demos! much more interesting than any show on ftv, that's for sure. and maybe we should just start a thread for photos of mise en place, that's the best. the other day i had a bunch of stuff peeled, cleaned, chopped, diced, minced, etc. laying around to make something and i thought about what a pleasure it is to see a nice bunch of mise!

first, i love this thread! very fun to watch you cook vadouvan. second, i really love that you can't spell patissier but you can spell trockenbeerenauslese with no problems... and another thought about desserts in general: i certainly appreciate the type of desserts that sam mason, alex stupak et al are putting out, but that is a particular style of cooking. the dessert menu has to match the cuisine of the restaurant as a whole via flavor profile and technique (you're not going to the cheesecake factory to get celery sorbet with peanut butter powder, are you? but i do understand the need for balance.). pastry chefs like claudia fleming were making more traditional desserts a long time ago that offered that nice balance between sweet and savory that is so often lacking. although, i guess back then she would have been considered revolutionary. and just what is wrong with a tuile spoon? (i can't believe they still sell templates for that crap).

i've kinda been thinking the same thing as patrick during this thread...amazing mouthfeel and textural contrast aside, it has to taste like something other than a moutful of sugar and raw yolk...

for pure kitsch value, try the Madonna Inn which has different themes for each room! edited to add: it is above your budget, but you can blow it on a night there and stay at a motel 6 another night to balance it out. there are a bunch of nice b&b's in monterey and carmel-by-the-sea as well.

and wiping the drool off of my chin, i ask with trepidation... how much is that one, kerry? are both cutting frames changeable? edited to add: it doesn't come with the stainless spatula/tray to lift your product it looks like you actually have to screw the frames into place. the german product just slides into place so you can switch cutting frames quickly. but, of course this is just sour grapes! and i checked their web site, there are no prices listed

after all is said and done, i'd rather people smell good than dress presentably. i ate lunch at chez panisse the other day and (thank goodness we were ending our meal) an older gentleman who looked homeless (but it's berkeley, so that doesn't matter much) was sat right next to us. unfortunately, he smelled homeless as well. he was treated well, i think he was a regular, but i wouldn't have paid half as much attention to what he was wearing (or any attention to him at all) if he didn't smell so bad. the kind of stench you can cut with a knife. ugh!

i went for the first time on saturday! we had a great time and ate tons of garlic laden fried food. it was hot, but the tents offered great shade and there was a nice breeze. some of the music was pretty good. there were some guys playing that had a country/zaideco(sp?) sound that was fun. we weren't too interested in watching demos and stuff, we just wanted to see what it was all about. from what i overheard most garlic is grown elsewhere in california nowadays. there's just the big processing plant for garlic in gilroy itself. also, tons of garlic is being imported from china now as well. too bad! but octaveman, you're right, they have done a great job with the parking and bussing, etc. we got to gilroy at about 9:50am and we just had to follow the line of cars along the road to get to the festival. we were very happy to get there just as it opened as we avoided a lot of lines and crowds initially. it was a fun and beautiful california day.

happily, i haven't come across much racial profiling. my intent in participating in this discussion is just to play devil's advocate. i believe in dressing according to what i think other patrons (of the arts and of the restaurant) are wearing, within my budget. i just don't happen to have a big budget. because i work back of house, i'm so accustomed to having a uniform on the rest of my wardrobe suffers. i don't shop. so often, i'm not as nattily dressed as others. but i wouldn't show up at le bernardin in sneakers and jeans either, regardless of how expensive those sneakers and jeans are. i'm glad pan and slkinsey chimed in as well. you ask twenty people, you're going to get twenty different responses...that's what these forums are about.