aidensnd2

When do we get to see some pics?

I'm a huge rhubarb fan and something I recently started doing when I need partially cooked rhubarb is to poach it in verjuice. I think it brings out the rhubarbiness of the rhubarb.

I'll throw my vote in for rhubarb. Not too tasty raw but damn good when cooked.... Also, any meat.

I have used quite a bit of Lindt Premier Cru both Milk and Bitter-Sweet and have found it to temper quite well. Not as good as Valhrona but it's not anything that I would be disappointed to find myself working with. I do find the milk to be a bit sweet for my taste but thats just me. Dan

We do a lot of fruit tarts made with sweet short paste filled with frangipane and fresh fruit. They hold their shape very well, reheat well, can be made with any fruit, and taste fantastic. Just a thought... Hope this helps. Dan

I'm in Australia. I called Saeco Australia and they said that it was normal, so hopefully everything is ok. I already had to replace the boiler as the first one started leaking around the seams. Thanks Dan

Hi- I've noticed that when I use my Magic Deluxe it drips water out of the machine into the drip tray. Is this normal? It happens at the very beginning and end of the brewing process. Thanks Dan

Cube and add into omlettes, salad, scrambled eggs, risotto, stir fry, soups, etc...

The trick is to hold whatever you are slicing with the flat palm of your hand, makes it virtually impossible to cut yourself...

It depends on the method you are using. If the sugar crystalizes keep stirring until it is a powder then strain it off. Put the nuts back on the heat for a couple of minutes and the sugar coating on them will caramelize. Then just dump them onto silpat or something similar. You can add butter at then end if you want. Cooking the sorn/maple syrup does sound a lot easier though. I'll have to give it a try some day and see what the difference in the final product is like.

I'd say the most common use of the savarin mold is to make Savarin...

Is the fondant sagging in the center of the cake? If so then it's the cake settling.

Grateful Dead can't be beat...

I like a sweetish sauce with roasted pork. A tamarind based BBQ sauce is always nice. Or maybe a sweet and spicy ancho/pasilla sauce. Just a thought...

Here's another slightly different recipe/technique. Just made these today and they turned out good. 500g puree 650g caster sugar 200g glucose 15g pectin (yellow ribbon) 6 drops tartaric acid solution Combine puree and glucose, boil. Mix pectin and 50 grams sugar and add to puree mixture, mix and boil again. Add remaining sugar in 3 batches boiling between each addition. Cook to 74 Brix or test until it sets. Add acid, stir, pour into mould/tray and sprinkle A1 sugar on top. Let cool, cut and coat in sugar.

On Iron Chef Turkey Battle turkey sashimi makes an appearance. Something about eating raw poultry just seems so wrong. I have a hard enough time with raw beef.

I'm always amused when an excuse like; "We just got a new chef", "We're in the middle of changing chefs." or something along those lines is used as an explanation for substandard food. If the rest of the chefs/cooks can't cook without someone staring over their shoulder then I figure it's not going to be all that much better when the chef situation is resolved...

Definitely rhubarb.

That's another thing that confuses me, when the waiter sees that you aren't pleased with your meal and offers to get a different dish I'm never sure if I'll end up paying for both of them. It always seems like the more I'm looking forward to a meal the less pleased with it I am. Normally it's no fault of the kitchen it's more me just not liking the flavor pairings or something like that. Guess it doens't help that I'm a picky eater. Dan

Savoury palmiers are always good, easy and impressive. You can fill them with pretty much anything, they're good hot or cold and they store and travel well. Blini are good too. They can be made a couple days in advance and can be topped with just about anything. Make some pate brisee mini tart shells and fill, once again, with basically anything...

I was just reading the salad dressing in the side thread and noticed that a lot of people said that they would send a salad back if they didn't like the dressing which brought me to this question. If you order something and it comes out as it was described but you simply don't like it for whatever reason would you send it back? I'm not talking about a problem with the dish such as it being over/under cooked, cold etc... but if the only problem is that you don't like the flavor is that considered an acceptable reason to send it back? I have no problem returning a meal if there is something wrong with it but have never felt comfortable returning it based on taste. I figure if I get what I order and don't like it that's not the restaurants problem. Anyone else? Thanks Dan

Sorry, it should have read "a pastry chef" not "the pastry chef" We are colleagues. He works there full time, I work part time...

So the pastry chef at one of the places I work insists that when you make a meringue you have to put some sugar in with the whites as soon as you start to whip them and then add about a tablespoon every minute or so until they reach full volume. I have always waited until the whites get some volume before adding any sugar and then I pretty much add the sugar in 3 equal parts. I don't really have a problem with adding the sugar slowly except it means that I can't do anything else while the meringue whips. Last week we got into a big argument about this and he basically ended it with, "I've been doing this longer than you so shut up and do it my way." His way does work I'm just more annoyed that he insisted that his way was the right and only way to do it and my way wouldn't get as much volume. Does anyone else add sugar at the very beginning? This was the first time I had seen it done that way. Thanks Dan

Along this line I've always wondered why menus don't have pictures of the food next to the descriptions. I'd be much more willing to try something 'new' if I could see what it looks like first. Dan

If you are going to stick your fingers into the sugar you need to soak them in cold water first or they will burn. That's how I test my sugar and although it is scary the first few times it works pretty good.