lorea

I've usually been kind of disappointed in food in Tahoe, until I found these two places: - Sunday brunch at Siena hotel (Reno) - It's wonderful, seriously. I haven't been back in a while, but every time I went for brunch, it was delicious! Their St. Honore is to die for. - All-you-can-eat sushi at Waterwheel (South Lake Tahoe) - seriously! I laughed when I first heard about it, but when I went, I was really impressed. The sushi is very fresh. Each group of people gets assigned their very own personal sushi chef that will make anything you want (try their rolls...they have some very tasty inventions). But DO avoid the horrible Chinese food there in the sit-down area - the sushi is at the bar.

Is it okay to use ghee as a replacement for clarified butter when cooking non-Indian food? I've been doing it this way out of laziness (ghee comes in a nice, packaged jar). Is there any time you wouldn't want to use ghee as a replacement?

I was wondering if anybody has made the Double Chocolate Chip cookie recipe yet? It looks like an interesting recipe to try.

Yep, I also do the washing herbs, then wrapping them in a paper towel (don't dry them before wrapping), then in a plastic bag in the fridge. My mint easily lasts a month that way. But when I have no room in my fridge, I've actually just stuck the mint into my moist soil of my indoor plants and it stays fresh for a really long time. I've actually had some of my mint root that way too. One time, I had a huge batch and just filled up a huge pot with soil and "planted" the mint in there until I was ready to use it. Just make sure you keep the soil moist.

I made the mkfradin white cake and it was really really good - I think it had a very similar texture to the recipe in the Best Recipe that I mentioned earlier on this thread, but slightly oily tasting and oily feeling compared to it, but also slightly more tender. It was milkier tasting though, which I did like. A friend of mine said it "tasted like condensed milk, but in cake form." There was something missing though - I think it needs a touch of almond extract for the classic white cake flavor. I would give it a 4 - I still think the one in the Best Recipe is better in texture. However, now I think the Best Recipe one needs to change a little, to add a little more of that milky flavor that I really liked. I think I'm going to experiment more with the Best Recipe recipe and see if I can make it with the best of both worlds before I post my version. (unless somebody wants it as it is now)

Chinese style cold noodles....yum! Depending on the region, it's peanuty, sesame-y, garlicky, spicy, and refreshing! I'm also another one for Vietnamese spring rolls.

I would think that using flavored cream cheese would make the flavored part kind of muted. I think you'd probably get much better results with folding in a fruit puree into your final batter. Mayhaw Man mentioned something about a Peach Pound Cake in an eG thread, and it sounded so wonderful I asked him to post it to Recipe Gullet. I haven't tried it yet as peaches aren't in season yet, but here it is: Peach Pound Cake. To do the quote thing, just click on the "Quote" button at the top left hand side of the person you want to quote.

Thanks for responding, Kevin. I think Cook's Illustrated has many versions, and have tweaked it over the years. The one that I really liked was from the Best Recipe book they published (1999?). It's good to see they're continuing to test new recipes! I was comparing the recipe you posted, and the one in the Best Recipe and The Best Recipe version has much less cake flour and no pudding, among other differences.

Yes, I was wondering about that extreme whiteness. It's perfect for a white cake when the white looks matter. Perhaps it's the flour that's available in Malaysia?

TP(M'sia)'s mkfradin's cake was cute! Has anybody that tried these posted cakes also tried the white cake from The Best Recipe (Cook's Illustrated)? How does it compare? The reason why I'm asking is that that is my favorite white cake recipe (after trying a bunch for a while), but if one of these are better, I definitely want to try it! Heck, when I get some more time, I'm going to try these anyways, since I absolutely love white cake when it's done right.

Do frozen egg whites mean they're pasteurized? I almost always use frozen egg whites since I tend to use up egg yolks and egg whites at a different rate, so I always freeze up my leftover egg parts for later use. I didn't realize what I was doing was pasteurizing them.

I was just reading through this thread this morning, and today, I ran into a little problem at the checkstand: Checkstand Manager(that's what her tag said) - "What is this?" Me - "It's flowering kale" CM - "Oh. Do you know how much it costs?" Me - "$1.99 per bunch" CM - "Um....how do you what a bunch is?" Me - "All the leaves are connected to a single stem!!" sigh. And it was the check stand MANAGER too, of a huge brand-new Safeway.

I think the brand of cocoa makes a big difference in flavor too, but maybe for the purposes of this experiment, we should stick to our own brand in our baking tests? So...since you tested Cake #1 with ____ brand, all the other cakes need to be tested with ____ brand? Then we can at least rule out the cocoa brands in the taste tests.

Thanks for the great class! It's nice to have all of my sensory elements succintly summarized. It's made me a little more aware of the things I put in my mouth.

When I have a serious craving, I sometimes order 2 desserts...one before my meal, and one after my meal. What drives me crazy is, most waiters will do a double take and ask me incredulously, "you want the first dessert now??" That single question always makes me cringe. I like having a separate dessert menu because it makes ordering it seem much more special. If dessert is put at the bottom of the menu, it makes me feel that the restaurant puts less emphasis on dessert and it's most likely not going to be very good. I am much less inclined to order dessert if it is presented that way. I am much more likely to order dessert if it is displayed than if it is simply on the menu. As a suggestion, why don't dinner menus come with a suggested dessert to pair with the main course, similar to wine pairings?

I've also seen these cheesy looking silicone ones that are about the price of traditional pastry brushes: Better Brush The bristles are very soft, without the ball-tipped ends. I'd be a little worried about the plastic handles melting in a hot situation though. I've been tempted to get either the Sili Brush or the Better Brush...please let us know how your new brush works out for you!

Isn't this the actual cut of meat a lot of Korean groceries/butchers already sell in big frozen pre-sliced packs? Assuming you live in an area with Korean butchers, I mean. I'm assuming you're talking about the pre-sliced meat that is usually used for bulgogi? In that case, it's thinly sliced ribeye. I've tried it with round, and believe me....it's hard to get the classic bulgogi taste and texture with round.

I made JanKK's cake last night. I was going to type up that I liked the very fine, elegant crumb, and moistness, but I thought it was a little crumbly and needed a boost in buttery flavor. I did think it had an overall roundness of flavor from the chocolate though. But! I just realized that I used one stick (4 oz.) of butter, rather one cup! (I had 2 friends over last night that wanted to help...let's chalk it down to being distracted!) Based on the fact that I really enjoyed the texture and the chocolate flavor with half of the required butter, I definitely want to try this one again - I think it has great potential. The texture was, in fact, feathery, and the batter was extremely easy to work with.

Have you tried the silicone bristle ones? I haven't tried them myself, but I'm sure they'd stand up well to the dishwasher. Not sure about how they would perform though.

The incredibly soft, buttery insides of a fresh croissant. Then after it's gone, eating the flaky ends of the croissant.

I have another question...how do you know when corn is finished cooking (except for taking a bite out of it!)? And how long does it take? When boiling or steaming, do you keep the husk on or off? Salt in the water, or no?

I think they tell you to use either the white part or the green part of the scallion based upon what you're using it for. The whites can be put into longer cooking foods (or put in the dishes before the green parts) because they act more like regular onions - durable and fragrant. The greens are pretty fragile and kind of fall apart and get mushy if they get cooked too long. I think the white part begins once it starts to get firm (vs. the floppy green part). Don't throw out the green part! Save it for another dish, or slice it thinly on the diagonal and scatter across your finished dish like chives.

When I know I'm not going to be eating a whole batch, I portion mine out onto a silpat/parchment and flash-freeze the cookies into portion size, then slip them into a freezer bag when they're hard. When I want fresh cookies the next day, I just pop them in the oven and I get freshly baked cookies anytime! With the refrigerator cookies, I would slice them once they are hard, then freeze, so I wouldn't need to slice each one before I wanted to bake them.

My Kitchenaid branded silicone spatula that's shaped to curve with the mixer bowl. Wow! That thing is great! It's great for all types of bowls, not just the Kitchenaid mixer bowls. And...I guess I use my stand mixer as often as my spatula, so that should be on the list too. Tongs I second the flat, angled, bamboo spatula.

The greatest part of Chinese sausages is the sweetness! Taking away the sugar would make it...non-Chinese sausage? I forgot the name of the brand I like the best, but it has very short, pudgy sausages. It's fantastic in fried rice....take a few pieces and flavor the oil with it (along with the whites of the scallions) before stir-frying the rice. It's also great stir-fried with cabbage.