vinaigre

Has anyone tried blanching asparagus in milk? I recently read about how the volatile flavor compounds are leached out into water but stay in the vegetable when cooked in a fatty medium (ie milk). Haven't been able to try as we haven't had any asparagus here in Venezuela lately.

For the creme parisienne, wouldn't the soy lecithin already in the chocolate help with the whipping, thereby eliminating (or at least minimizing) the need for chilling?

Try briefly toasting the seeds and then infusing the cream overnight in the refrigerator. That should work.

Here are three of my worst catering stories: 1. Young couple hires me for kid's baptism lunch. They specify that guests will eat standing up, so something in a bowl is in order. They suggest a fish soup, I reply with a bouillabaisse. We agree. I e-mail them a list of china (i.e. soup bowls) they will need to rent, they agree. Midway through finishing the bouillabaisse and portioning the fish, the very drunk husband stumbles into the kitchen and demands everyone eats now. He looks at the fish and screams about how its not even cooked yet. (Apparently he has no clue how long it takes to cook cubes of fish in a warm liquid). So, after tactfully dealing with the incapacitated client, the food is nearly ready. I make my umpteenth request for the (client-hired) waiters to get my bowls ready for plating. To which I'm finally told, what bowls? There are no bowls. You'll have to serve the soup on plates. 2. Hired by an event planner to do hors d'oeuvre for a 100 at a wedding reception. We agree on a menu (with plenty of cooked items: grilled shrimp wrapped in serrano ham, shots of warm pumpkin soup, skewers for slow-roasted leg of pork that need to be warmed, etc.) and I'm given a floor plan of the venue (its a house. Houses usually have kitchens). There is a kitchen on this floor plan. And then I wait, and wait, and wait. The event planner disappears until two days before the event. So I don't have a chance to actually look at the venue (not usually a problem). I arrive on the day of the event only to find there is no kitchen. A bar with a tiny sink, but no kitchen. No stove, no oven, no refrigerators. So I race to the nearest hardware store and buy portable electrical burners (they didn't have gas burners). And cook for 100 guests while sitting on the floor. 3. Posh guests ask for the most expensive item on my menu. We agree on lobster. Midway through the event, their gas is cut off. They hadn't paid their gas bill! I finish the meal on a beat up old grill they had laying around in their garage, cooking outdoors at night in the dark (old flashlight between the teeth bit). Needless to say I'm ridiculously thorough about prepping my clients now.