schneich

ellencho - the most important thing is for you to decide what you want to do with the pasta. It is much easier then you may think and can be a very fun and social activity. If you have kids they will most likely enjoy helping to stuff pasta etc. In the north of Italy where many of the stuffed pasta originate, it is usual to use soft wheat flour. This type of flour comes in many grades, but "00" is mostly used. It is very refined (in a good way) and has low amounts of the things that will make many pasta doughs turn grey and give you a murky coloured pasta. It also has a relatively low protein content, so less gluten can be formed. This is why eggs are commonly added, to give the starch in the flour some protein to hang on to! The dried pasta in the shops and most of the pasta types from the south of Italy are made from durum wheat flour (semolina - fine grade, not the stuff for puddings), this contains a high protein content and so produces much gluten. So it doesn't require the egg, and in some cases this would be overkill. It also produces naturally yellow pasta, whereas the soft wheat flour produces white pasta, unless you use many highly coloured eggs. In practice, you can use either after all you are the one going to eat it. I find that the two flours produce pasta with different mouth feels and I prefer the soft wheat flour for stuffed pasta, tagliatelle, papadelle and lasagna. Durum wheat flour for finer types of pasta. These are my preferences and don't reflect anything other then that (for instance lasagna pasta is made in the north and south using different flours, so what is authentic etc). If using soft wheat flour, it really is worth finding some Italian '00' grade and getting the best eggs you can find. One thing that isn't commonly mentioned is that it is possible to fry stuffed pasta (soft wheat with egg) and these make good things to hand around at parties etc. Enjoy. again i think most of you people really dont know the difference between flour type´s.... Weak flour (also known as soft flour or hi-ratio flour) has a low gluten content of approx. 8% and is therefore ideal for delicate cake and sponge production Medium flour (also known as all purpose flour) is produced so that it is suitable for products that have to be chemically aerated. It is weak enough to stop toughening but strong enough to stand the pressures of the gases resulting from the use of baking powders etc. It is also a good all round flour for bread-crumbing, batters, scones etc Strong flour (also known as tipo 00) has a high gluten content, that makes it ideal for yeast products, breads, puff pastry and pasta Durum wheat flour (also known as Durum flour and semolina flour) this is specially produced for the production of pastas. i stay with my conclusion that one cannot make decent pasta with AP flour, no matter how many italian mamsels write so in their cookbooks. also the flours in italy are totally different to those in the US. ( you can trust me on this since i used AP and here in germany i get a very fine premium grade tipo 00 organic flour imported directly from a small mill in ragusa sicilia.) Also the description "AP" or "00" or "breadflour" will not tell you everything about your flour. i have seen flours of the same category that behaved totally different when making bread or pasta. so good luck... t.

also 00 is soft wheat and has absolutly nothing to do with durum (which is hard wheat) t. So.... your agreeing or disagreeing with me about AP being a better sub for 00 than semolina? I buy semolina flour 50lbs at a time, but that doesn't mean I believe its the only way to make good pasta. i agree that you dont know the product you work with.... t.

I take it you feel strongly about this. That's the nice thing about this board...there is often more than just one solution to a problem, more than one way cook a goose (to mix up my metaphors) or make pasta. It may not be your way to do it or even the "right" way (whatever that is) to do it, but it is a way to do it that has obviously brought success to those who've posted about it. edited to add: Lighten up! its always the question of how you define success... these days there are so many people who just dont know how to do even the most basic things right. surely there are many ways to reach rome, but to write such bullshit about making pasta just is just physical hurting and wont lead to edible results period. besides that it will disappoint newbies when trying out new things... warm cheers t.

also 00 is soft wheat and has absolutly nothing to do with durum (which is hard wheat) t.

i totally ADORE the Maldon salt pyramids, they are GREAT on wagyu tenderloin sashimi to add a nice crunch factor... the red hawaiian salt is also nice.... t.

sorry but it sounds that you dont know much about flour and pasta AP is much lower in gluten then breadflour (up to 4%) and every baker knows that this makes a big difference !! and your "standard pasta recipe" simply sucks! t.

no egg pasta with all purpose flour... YUK! !!!!! should be under "worst foods"... t.

BULLSHIT BULLSHIT BULLSHIT !! a real pasta can never be made without semolina or durum wheat as it is also called. this is mainly because all purpose flour is high in starch and low in gluten. btu youll NEED the gluten to get a proper binding, without your pasta will be soggy and gluey. to clean you kitchenaid attachments (i also own them) just put a little bit of dough through your attachments 5 or 6 times thats enough! recipewise i can tell you my special recipe which even turns a noodlehater into a pastalover ;-) first of all mix breadflour and semolina fifty fifty to get a decent pasta flour ! then take 300 grams of this pastaflour, 1 whole egg, 7 YOLKS!!!, 1 tbsp. olive oil 1/2 tsp. salt and knead with your doughhook until you get a crumblike texture scrape the bowl onto table and knead until the dough comes together (takes a few minutes) as soon as you get a dough put it through the biggest setting of your pasta attachment until smooth. (at first it will be a bit crumbly but after about 2 times it will be smooth) then put into plasticbag and rest in fridge for at least 2 hours better overnight. if you make taglierini never use the thinnest setting ( 7 ) cause it will form a glob after cooking. i use 6 or sometimes even 5 !! at the moment iam working on a little pastacourse that will be up pretty soon it will feature filled pasta and will be done with my kitchenaid... :-) very often i take the above recipe and add 0.5 gram of saffron and a little malabar pepper. then i do 40 cm long plates of dough (on 5) and cut them with a wheelknife (pizza) into rustic very wide pappardelle, i then lay them on kitchenpaper next to each other NO OVERLAPING to dry overnight usually all tables are full the next day when the pasta has dried i put it in airtight containers. if dried eggpasta easily lasts 3 months. happy pastamaking !!! cheers t.

on high with lid off... ohhhhh... dont leave the house... or youll might have a smokey surprise... t.

i own a kitchenaid set and i use it many times a month. it is sooooo nice to have your hands free and able to "concentrate" on the dough ;-) especially if you do a pretty dry/firm dough you need to be carful to avoid folding over and so... also its very nice since the pasta attachment is pretty "high", so you have lots of space for handling.... my next photo recipe will feature making filled pasta cheers t.

i own the original tilia foodsaver, i got it from switzerland years ago. since about a year the foodsaver & utils is sold everywhere across germany especially in the big wholesale markets. i saw the tilia foodsaver in one of our "metro" markets. in france youll have them too, maybe you will get it there its called "metro cash n carry" http://www.metro.fr/ cheers t.

i tried the technique as iam a proud owner of a foodsaver :) i grabbed a bag threw in some deepfrozen greenpeas a lump of butter, a tsp. duck demiglace, seasalt, malabar pepper, a dash of dried savory and sealed it in... then i poached in a 80 C waterbath for 30 25 mins.... and what should i tell you... marvelous result the peas seemed much more flavorful to me, and all the other ingredients seemed to have fused to a really delicious sauce... i threw everything into a casseorle drizzled a tiny bit of arrowroot to coat the peas with sauce, and served with a lambchop and some potatosnow.. i surely will try again... cheers t.

most rotisserie chickens are badly overcooked, the tender meats get dry and if you take a bite of the breast you find yourself inside a cloud of dust... even though i find it anyway hard to roast an "offtheshelf" small chicken until it has a crispy skin without ruining the breast... of course its a whole different story with birds from france (bresse) or kapuns.... they stay juicy because of the additional fat any hint here... ?? t.

"greener" in meat... i havent tried a meat that tasted green yet.... t.

if you brown before your crust be gone ?! are there any recipes on sous vide on the web ??? like more than just one at a time ??... cheers t.

it might work for scallopine n stuff... but what about the good ol maillard ?? your meat will lack flavor ?!... ?? cheers t.

blowtrch method sucks very much !!! the idea of roasting is to caramelize the sugers inside the pepper... its very sweet after roasting, you dont get this with the blowtorch.. also peeling will be pain in the ass and it stinks like hell.... :( if you want to do sauce you pretty much HAVE to roast them otherwise your sauce will taste like shit ! cheers t. (see my tut in the onion confit thread)

beside that its stupid, its pretty unhealthy too... and what is reason for atkins in the first place ??? i cant live without pasta and bread. its just a hype anyway... like the lowfat nofat bullshit !!! cheedars t.

the onions may seem big, but they arent... its only about 2 pound ( 1000 grams) i NEVER use the big mild onions for confit cause they taste like cardboard... my recipe needs aprox. 1 1/2 cups dry white wine and about a litre of stock-caramel mixture cheers t.

here comes my recipe in detail: these are 2 pound of onions ( 1000 gram) peeled cut in half, quarter then slice... mix up some demiglace (in this case veal) put 4 heaped tbsp. suger turn on heat to... ...caramelize, pour two tbsp. honey into caramel deglace with stock, let dissolve caramel readymade caramelstock heat big skilet with 3 tbsp. oliveoil, not more or your confit gets greasy... ;-) start to fry ya onions.. let get very dark on the bottom, this step is important to get lots of flavor deglace with 1 1/2 cups dry white wine let fry again, and deglace with the caramel-stock mixture fry and deglace several times until your confit gets a rich brown color and a marmelade like texture when finished correct salt, pepper (malabar of course ;-) and some aceto "balsamico tradizionale extra vecchio" to add distinct acidicity and depth ;-) whoaa.... let cool... there you got my perfect onion confit... the whole process takes about 45 mins. to an hour! guten appetit ! cheers t.

try my version and you see.... ;-) adding cassisjelly is nice, and i do so too sometimes... but even better is the addition of my homemade red bellpepper jelly, which is also great on steaks and lambchops.... ;-) (post if you want the recipe) YUM t.

i dont know what you guys are talking about.... 24 hours, 2 hours... complete bullshit !!!! my "world famous" refried onion confit can be made in about 1h !!!! ok here we go... first peel a huge amount of onions.. escalotes are better, red onions too! cut onions in half, then quarters then in coarse sclices.. not too fine, as you want to "feel" some of the onions. then heat a good amount of oliveoil and start to fry the onions. the onions NEED to slightly get black at this stage, so dont stir until they are.. (not really black but very dark brown). if you did it right you got now translucent onions with a black part... (sorry hard to describe) only this way you will get the right taste to them. ok now continue frying until all parts of the onions are slightly brown, add 1 - 2 heaped tbsp of honey to the pan and continue stirring to avoid burn.. now deglace for the first time with a cup of dry whitewine, and reduce to medium heat. ok and here comes the trick : after deglacing let all the liquid evaporate until the onions start to fry again. now again deglace with stock (chicken) and again let the liquid evaporate... do this process a couple of times until the onions are thick like marmelade... the idea of the refryiing ist to give the onions each time more aramel taste... in the end you are left with a nicely sweet thick onion confit, that on every occasion runs out first :) oh.. season with pepper and salt AFTER the confit is ready cause everytime you deglace with stock you add a littgle bit of salt... you can nicely add some fresh herbs, and garlic if you like... the whole process should only take 30 min. or so... the confit will be best if cool... and even better the next day... ;-) yum yours t.

i live in cologne, which is only 30 km from solingen. i know a lot of small knifemakers around solingen, and a few nice knife shops in the area... i own several globals, wüsthofs and some handforge debas (not to forget my chinese cleaver ;-) i know a manufacturer that folds your name in damascene technique into a unique knife designed and balanced just for you.. so if you are in the cologne area, gimme a ring and we do a knife tour to solingen ! cheers t.

achieving a very nice consistency is possible without adding ANY thickener. first deglaze the pan, then cook your sauce down to your taste. break a third off a gelatine sheet, dissolve in NOmore cooking sauce. monter au beurre (of course with very cold butter) and voila :) a very nice sauce consistency... (you can use an immersionblender to make texture even foamier... cheers t.

sure kinsey, i was wrong.. its the other way round.. but i think your technique is far too complicated.... (thats the reason why few poeple do it) its much easier.. ----) first you lift up the skin on the "head" side and cut & break out the wishbone couse it makes things easier... then you trun over da bird and cut along the backbone. next you wiggle the wing to find the place to cut inbetween. once you cut both wings free you pull the wing as if you would help the bird out of the jacket... pull till you see the oyster, cut out the oyster (the TRUE filet) carfully, do this on both sides then turn over the bird grab under the tip of the breast and pull off the breastmeat... if you done it right you just need to turn over the legs ancut between, do this on both sides and voila... carcasse is gone. now cut around the first articulation of the leg, then scrape the meat until you are at the next articulation also cut carufully around this one too. when you reach the tip, stop scraping and put bone back in. use a cleaverback to break the tips of the leg (you do this to prevent loosing too much juice while cooking & it looks nicer) then you can pull out the bone easily.. do the cut around & scrape thing to the wings to, put everything in place after your finished & push the two remaining filetpieces from the carcasse just with your thumb gentle!! then lay the whole deboned bird in front of you put the filets where they belong and cut & fold over at those places where is just skin and no meat, the idea is to get two even layers of skin and meat. now its up to you howto stuff the bird, you could use apples, spinach, with a duck you could use marrons, you could use a veal mince & foie gras mixture.... you could use most everything and the flavors will combine beautifully... after you did your filling (dont forget to stuff the legs rite!) you fold over left n right side and grab a loong piece of kitchenthread put it around one end make a knot then you want to make a loop pull it over pull tight but not too much, again loop and pull.... do this to the whole bird when you are at the and turn the bird sideways and turn thread into each loop till you are where you started knot again and voila your ballotine is ready to jump into the oven.... as j. pepin says with this technique the lesser you use the knife the better... cheers t.