ludja

Yes, it looks like chicken albumin, the most common allergen in eggs, is restricted to the whites. It may be worth checking out with your friend whether egg yolks are an issue for her. (Maybe she is ultra sensitive to whites though, and separating the eggs by traditional means would still be a bad idea.) click

If the restrictions are because of allergies, it does seem odd to me for the bride to mind if one tier was made for her allergies and the rest of the cake was made for "taste" and her guests.... It is very nice of you to do this. An interesting idea was posed above though, if she knows if it is possible for her to eat either egg whites or egg yolks. I don't know if there are separate allergens that restricted to one part of the egg and not the other. In any case, if so, some options do open up. For instance, nut-based cakes without flour that used whipped egg whites for the leavening. Maybe these could also be made with an egg white substitute. I've also seen cakes that only use yolks and perhaps the wheat flour could be switched with a replacement.

We're on the same wavelength, kalypso. My first thought for food was mac and cheese and first thought for booze was Manhattan(s)... Meatloaf and tatertots (or mashed potatoes) sounds good too, Marmish. Some Haagen Daz for dessert might be nice as well or else some other ice cream with chocolate sauce. Add a salad if you have some greens at home. Later, bubble bath and/or fun movie. Drink some water before going to bed. Hope you feel better soon. Pretty funny, FatGuy...

Interesting first post, Domaine! The cake reminds of an Austrian/Hungarian cake, Dobos Torte. (The Dobos torte has many thin layers of cake filled with a rich chocolate butter cream. The top cake layer is covered with a crunchy caramel.) Speaking of cakes from the region and looking through my new cookbook mentioned above, I also got reminded of "Lady Baltimore Cake". A white cake filled and iced with a cooked meringue aumented with dried fruit like raisins and/or figs, walnuts or pecans, and cognac. The author has another recipe that I hadn't heard of called "Lord Baltimore Cake". The story told along side is that as the "Lady Baltimore Cake" used all egg whites, another recipe was developed for a yellow cake that uses the yolks. The recipe in that book uses a cooked meringue frosting and filling that has macaroon crumbs, black walnuts, almonds, candied cherries, lemon juice and sherry. The history of the cake is mentioned here. From that and other things I've read I think the cake originated in Charleston, SC and was then popularized throughout the South. Since these cakes are mentioned in the Chesapeake Cookbook I'm wondering if it is or was also popular around Baltimore and the area?

All the cakes looks just wonderful, DarcieB! I'm tempted to try the White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake and I am now craving coconut cake again! (I do think it is also wonderful with milk for breakfast!) Congrats also on your wonderful cookie tray; your co-workers are very lucky. How do you flavor your chocolate merinques? cocoa powder? grated chocolate? Can you give rough amounts for how much chocolate to egg whites you use? They look great. You mentioned that the fryer might make an appearance again in the thread, but I wanted to make sure and ask you about the model and brand you have as you seem to be quite happy with it. Bless you for taking in another kitty, and one that needs special care as well. Whatever the diagnosis ends up being, I hope that the cat does as well as he or she can and is able to get along with the other cats.

Chufi-- Here is a great cake out of one of Emily Luchetti's (well known pastry chef and cookbook author from San Francisco) cookbooks: Tuscan Cream Cake. I thought of the cake when you mentioned your husbands tastes and the zabaglione/hazelnut cake and then I found that there was actually a copy of it online here. (The format is in very small print; but one could copy and paste it to read it easier). It is a 5 laver cake (bake 3 layers and cut each in half) that is filled with a zabaglione cream. The cake is iced with whipped cream, the top is covered with dark chocolate curls and the sides are covered with crumbled amaretti cookies. It looks spectacular and tastes delicious. I've made to great applause for a both a baby shower and for my Mom on Mother's Day.

I just picked up another book by the same author, John Shields, a Baltimore native, "The Chesapeake Bay Cookbook". I haven't seen his other books to compare but this looks very good. I think it would be a good resource for getting an overview of traditional foods and dishes of the area.

Sorry I missed your post in time for the holidays, onehsancare. But here are some suggestions for the future or for others. I really like the "Cafe Pasqual cookbook" that estherschindler mentioned earlier. I have cooked quite a bit out of it and everything has been very good. A great book on traditional New Mexican cuisine is: "Feast of Santa Fe" by Huntley Dent. A smaller book called "Classic Southwest Cooking" by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger has a nice mix of traditional and more 'nouveau' recipes. The main emphasis here, is on cuisine from or inspired from New Mexico. I would see this as an add-on to "The Feast of Santa Fe". I also like "Southwest Tastes" by Ellen Brown. This has recipes from the PBS series, "Great Chefs of the West" and features some more traditional recipes but also newer creations by top chefs from the SWest. The recipes are well written and not difficult. There is also a pretty good cookbook series on Santa Fe cooking put out by Tierra Publications. The one I have is "Santa Fe: Lite and Spicy" by Joan Stromquist. Don't let the name scare you off; the recipes are lighter than some of the traditional recipes but they are far from diet food. The recipes are from various Santa Fe chefs (early 90's) and there are lots of good recipes in there. "The Border Cookbook" by Jamison and Jamison has lots of great, more traditional recipes from Arizone, Texas, southern CA and Texas. "TexMex Cookbook by Robb Walsh. Excellent recipes and cultural history of TexMex cuisine. "Cuisine of the American Southwest" by Anne Lindsay Greer. Large picture book but good basic recipes including stuff like chimichangas, chalupas, jalepeno jelly, etc "The El Paso Chile Company's Burning Desires" by W. Park Kerr I haven't cooked much out of this yet but the recipes look good. They are newer dishes like Tequila Shrimp, Grilled Country Spareribs in Chipotle-Orange Marinade, BBQ Tuna Steaks with Roasted Corn Vinagrette, etc. "Cakes and Cowpokes" by Wayne Harley Brochman (all desserts, but lots of interesting original SW-inspired recipes, some with chiles, for cakes, pies, ice creams, etc). If someone wanted more traditional recipes, I'd go with "Feast of Santa Fe" and "The Border Cookbook" and Robb Walsh's "TexMex Cookbook". If one wanted newer recipes being featured in SW restaurants I'd go with "Cafe Pasqual", "Southwest Tastes", or "Santa Fe:Lite and Spicy" or as mentioned earlier by andiesenji, "The Coyote Cafe" cookbooks. (I haven't cooked from "Burning Desires" ) I need to check out the "Food of Santa Fe" cookbook by Gerlach and DeWitt. Did you end up deciding on some books for gifts, onehsancare?

I don't have much concrete information to add, but some of the nicest fried squid I've had were some dusted with seasoned rice flour. I tried this at home with some shrimp and they came out great. I just rolled the shrimp in rice flour with salt and pepper and then shallow fried them and they came out with a very crispy, thin coating. I've been wanting to try this coating at home with deep-fried squid but haven't tried it yet. The other recipe I've been wanting to try is from Meyer and Romano's "Union Square Cookbook". Their coating is equal parts flour and graham cracker crumbs seasoned with salt. Toss with flour mix and then shake off excess flour by shakng the squid in a sieve. Cook at 360 deg without overcrowding to maintain the temp. They say that the small amount of sugar in the graham crackers caramelizes slightly and that they are good with a spicy dipping sauce, like the one they give for a cayenne and lemon accented anchovy mayonnaise. Anyway, in both these cases the squid are just tossed with a dry coating and then fried and some other above have also mentioned.

If you love fresh coconut and have the time...it's really great using freshly grated coconut for the filling and the cake. I cracked the coconut and peeled pieces the day before and then just grated it when I needed it. Another note is that they recommend making the filling the day before and letting it chill overnight in the fridge. (Since fresh coconut does not have extra sweetening, I found the sweetness of frosting and filling to be fine as is. If you use sweetened, dried coconut maybe decreasing the sugar would be a nice idea.) Just my 2 cents. Happy Birthday and enjoy baking, sharing and eating your cakes! (I have to chime in also regarding the marvelous bagels; you may have given me the courage to try this sometime!)

Citrus is fine. The other fruit I know of with gelatin dissolving powers, in addition to those you've already listed, is kiwi. ← and raw papaya... I've seen a bunch of recipe for mango mousse that use gelatin so that may be okay.

Not sure if the fresh citrus juice would react with the gelatin and keep it from solidifying. I know that pineapple and mango have certain enzymes that keep gelatin from setting, but I'm not sure about citrus. Maybe just a little bit of fresh lime juice in place of some of the water would make the jello taste more like a real mojito. I'd just use lime jello, white rum and some sort of mint syrup that would mix in completely and consistently. Actual muddled mint leaves would be too messy and leave inconsistent amounts of leaf in each serving. The Jello is sweet enough that it wouldn't need any extra sugar. ← I've made orange gelatin (Knox unflavored gelatin and fresh orange juice) before with no problem. I've also seen recipes for key lime pie or mousse that gelatin. I'm pretty sure limes would be fine. Thanks for the cool ideas, Katie. I might trymaking the mojito gelatin shots with Knox gelatin, rum, lime juice and mint syrup.

I've heard good things about Passionfish as well. If you have a chance to go to Carmel as well, there are a few good threads on here with recommendations. Thanks, SJ Shappee and Ed Davis, for your 'local' recs and welcome to egullet too!

Last night I made a bourbon manhattan and substituted orange bitters for the Angostura and it was a subtle but nice difference. I used Fee's but am anxious to get my hands on Regan's No. 6 soon. Thanks for bumping up the thread and reminding me of this.

I have and have also given many newlyweds Jean Anderson's "The New Doubleday Cookbook". It is really a great reference and many of my basic recipes still come from it. I've taken "The American Century Cookbook" out of the library and it is pretty fascinating. There are lots of great sidebars and additional research in the book regarding the history of many of the recipes. I'm also a fan of her "Foods of Portugal Cookbook" and "The New German Cookbook". Thank you for sharing some of your reminiscences of times spent with Jean Anderson and also for telling us about her website.

Just saw this review of Traunfeld's new cookbook, "The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor" in the SF Chronicle. (thanks digesters!) Other recipes mentioned: Slow-Roasted Salmon with Spring Herb Sauce, Roasted Cauliflower with Apple & Dill Berry Rose Sangria Lavender Pound Cake, and Blueberries Blueberries and Watermelon in Cinnamon Basil Syrup. Already mentioned earlier by others, but after doing some more scouting at the bookstores, "Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America" by Jose Andres and Richard Wolffe is going to the top of my choices among last years books. Nice balance of new and traditional tapas that all sound very tempting.

I like chocolate with orange, chocolate with raspberry, white chocolate with almost any kind of fruit, and just about any kind of butter cake/buttercream icing. That really limits it, doesn't it? ← People have given a lot of good ideas already, but if you like coconut, a fresh coconut cream layer cake is a luscious self indulgence, and beautiful to look at as well. A few months ago I made the lauded Peninsula Grill Coconut Cream Cake. The custard filling and the buttercream/cream cheese frosting are just great. I used freshly grated unsweetend and untoasted coconut instead of the sweetened flaked coconut in the recipe. I also used another cake recipe but the given one looks very good and I think other people on egullet have made it as well. It is a large cake; great for a crowd and/or for snaking on the week after. (I actually made a two layer cake and cut down on the frosting and filling accordingly). One of my favorite cakes; I may make it again in a few months for my birthday!

Some traditional foods associated with the city according to this web site: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq4.html#pittsburgh City chicken, cookie tables, Italian wedding soup, & Pittsburgh-style steaks (black on the outside, red on the inside) True???

No comparsion with the mining tragedies, but it has been nice to have some happy WVa news recently via Morgantown and WVU's football and basketball teams... What a lovely kitchen with all that space and light. It's too early for ramps, but it would be interesting to hear of any other 'regional' cooking if that is part of your repertoire. Do you have a sense of how much traditional, regional cooking is still going on in the area? Thanks in advance, and have a fun week! Your birthday cake sounds great.

Glad it came out well, and thanks for posting the photo!

I like Shalmanese's idea re: the pomegranate sorbet. Another sorbet that I think would go very well at the end of that meal would be pineapple. Process one large pineapple (de-cored and eyes removed) to get a quart of puree. For 1 quart of puree use 2/3 cup sugar. Heat a half cup or so of the puree over medium heat and add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Add sugared pineapple to rest of the puree and add 1/2 tsp kirsch or more to taste. Cool completely in fridge then freeze in ice cream maker. Can serve with a dollop of whipped cream if desired and/or a crispy cookie. This sherbert/sorbet has a lovely texture and great flavor; kirsch and pineapple are made for each other. (adapted from Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook)

At one of our egullet gatherings, Carolyn Tillie made an incredible and spectacular stuffed timpano. One large one would probably be enough for the whole group and there would be so many options to serve for before and after... Carolyn or someone else may have more specific tips as I've never made one.

The first item I had to make, shortly after I joined were French Macarons from the Macaroons: The Delicate French Invention thread. The most recent item was Kletzenbrot (an Austrian/German Pear Fruitcake) that I learned about in Adam Balic’s recent mini-blog about visiting Graz and Vienna here. In between, too many to mention all of the great inspirations but including items from such classic threads as the carnitas and roasted cauliflower ones mentioned above. Also the Aviation Cocktail and martinis made with Hendrick’s gin. Some of the next items on deck: Hzt8w’s: Ma Po Tofu from her terrific series on Chinese home cooking. I'm sure I'll make other dishes as well. Chufi’s Dutch Butter Beef from her thread on traditional Dutch cooking. (also the speculaas cookies) and Thai Khao Soi Curry Noodles inspired from the recent cookoff already including egullet participants from Thailand, Iowa and Paris! No disappointments so far!

Besides "eating on the go" in the city, hotdogs are also strongly associated with other American activities such as baseball games, state fairs and backyard cookouts--inexpenisive, easy to eat and easy to cook. Maybe early on, people also associated hot dogs with 'fun' activites like going to a fair or to a game, but being inexpensive and easy to cook also puts them within everyones range to make at home. Even if you often make more elaborate cook outs, having people over for hotdogs and hamburgers can be a very simple and relatively spontaneous way to feed a large group of people in your backyard when the weather is nice. My family would usually plan more for other cookouts but on any nice evening someone might say, why not grill some hotdogs and quickly you have a moderately festive occasion! I think eating hot dogs at baseball games and making them at backyard cookouts contributed to cementing their place in American food. Besides, as already mentioned, they taste good, go great with beer and can be tailored to individual tastes. What would be the food eaten at similar sporting events or fairs in England, for instance, or is food less a part of those activities? Is there a dish typically eaten at football (soccer) games? I suppose that people probably grill out quite a bit less in England, for example, but is there a typical dish that would correspond in popularity and ease of preparation to hot dogs and hamburgers in the U.S.?

Would need bowls to serve these-- raspberry oeufs a la neige served with almond tuile cookies (pink framboise-flavored custard) strawberry mousse served in a large almong tuile cookie shell and garnished with dried strawberry slices inspired from Claudia Flemings, Grammercy Tavern Dessert Cookbook (The Last Course): buttermilk panna cotta with a layer of rose gelee (She has a photo with another unique presentation in which the panna cotta is sitting in a pool of rose gelee as if it were an island floating in a rose sea) Fresh Pineapple Sorbet with Champagne Sabayon and Candied Rose Petals Escoffier (I've made this from the Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook and it is both utterly delicious and beautiful.)