Daniel

Well winter is here and what better time to make ice cream. I just got a new side by side ice cream maker.. Two flavors ate once.. This also coincides with me receiving my double strength vanilla extract from penseys.. I am definately making a chocolate gelato that i will post the recipe for.. But i was wondering if anyone had any really good ice cream recipes.. Alot of times when i make the ice cream it gets too frozen after putting it in the freezer.. Is there something i can do to avoid that, with out eating the whole thing right after i make it? Also, eggs or no eggs? Whats the difference? What i am looking for is a really really good vanilla, and a good cinamon.. Edit to add: Olive oil gelatto would be great too,.

So, I am back from my trip..Thank you all for your suggestions and help.. Unfortunately, we didnt start taking pictures of food until Sunday.. I was really disappointed we didnt bring the camera to Morimotos.. Morimotos, was an absolute wonderful evening.. First, because of the company, and Second, because of the restaurant.. Instead of telling you the whole story of the evening i will speak about the food.. The first two appetizers we ordered were really good. Oysters served with brolied sea urchin, a piece of fois gras, all served in that bbq eel sauce.. It was awesome.. My date normally doesnt like sea urchin, but broiling it gives it some more texture and makes it less slimey. It all fit on a fork in a single bit.. All the flavors went really well together it was very rich and luxurious. Kobe Beef Tartare- This was Kobe Beef lightly seared, mixed with a few ingrediants topped with osetra caviar.. I believe it was like 23 bucks or something for a very small portion.. This was just ok.. Everything went well together, but it was over priced.. I would not have gotten this if it werent for the fact that my date had never tried kobe beef. We then ordered the tasting appetizer or whatever its called.. This is a really cute idea, and was where some of the more impressive dishes were.. Basically, you have the choice of ordering 3, 5, or 8 little dishes that the chef prepares. We went with the 5 dishes and it was served in a cute looking tool box type thing.. The five dishes were perserved needle fish, a spicy japanese pumpkin, sea cucumber in a citrus sauce, this shredded smokey kobe beef dish, some sort of japanese fruit.. Almost resembling a lichee nut.. Next came out Morimoto Tempura - This was assorted vegetables served over a gorgonzola sauce.. There were mushrooms, eggplants, baby carrots, yuca, and a couple of shrimp.. The quality of the tempura itself was very impressive.. I dont often order tempura because i feel its a waiste to fill up on fried food at places that are known for fresh ingrediants.. This was some of the better i have had.. It was light, airy, crispy.. And the cheese sauce was a great accompaniment. Then we odered a few pieces of sushi. The sushi list was pretty impressive.. I ordered two scallops sashimi, two o-toro sashimi, two jack mackeral, and two adult yellow tail sashimi.. The best piece of fish we had was the adult yellow taill.. It was a gorgeous piece of fish. It was firm, yet buttery like a piece of chu-toro.. It was really great.. The freshly grated wasabi was fantastic.. It was some of the better wasabi i have had, it was a little gritty, really sharp, and refreshing. I dont use soy sauce or wasabi on my sushi, but i like to pick at it afterwards. The biggest biggest biggest criticism i have of this place are the desserts.. They should really be embarassed by them.. It seems like the whole dessert thing is an after thought at Morimotos.. And a poor after thought at that.. They have a terrible tea selection, no dessert sake menu, and some of the most god awful desserts i have ever had.. We ordered three of them.. A pot de creme with an espresso foam. A wasabi tiramisu, and something else. The pot de creme, was like a disgusting pudding made from a low grade chocolate.. The tiramisu was actually an angel food cake that had wasabi flavored whipped cream on top.. So poor. And the third one wasnt good or bad enough to remember.. Had an oolong tea that turned out to be very good however. All in all, i would say that Morimotos is excellent.. The service was great, the room itself it really beautiful.. Bamboo floors and cielings. And despite that fact that the room look crowded, when you and a date are sitting along the walls, you have a lot of privacy. You cant hear other conversations, and you dont feel like people are listening in on yours. I would say this place is a lot better then nobu and a great place to go. It has all his original dishes he made at Nobu and then newer more exciting things.. I am looking foward to trying that twice fried fish, or the pork belly in congree, or the tuna pizza.. And going back for the oysters with fois gras and sea urchin.. But next time i will make a reservation to have dessert somewhere else. I will be back to see the Dahli exhibit in a few weeks and will take pics this time.

Yes please post the recipe Susan.. I deep fried wings last night and made the Frank's red hot wings.. It was a little too salty, and was thinking next time i was going to use unsalted butter. I ended up adding more Frank's then the directions called for and added crushed dried thai chile peppers.. It turned out better, But would love the anchor bar recipe.. Thank you.

I agree 100 percent.. For some reason it seems that the upper westside is the only area of the country that has not been affected by the restaurant revolution. You cant get decent chinese food,you cant get a slice of pizza, and you certainly I cant get good mexican food.. For that matter, besides, Onera, Celeste, and an occasional Quest.. The upper west side sucks for food..(Food markets not included). And its not like there is a shortage of people with money up here.

Well, last night marks my first two attempts at making macaroons.. I want you to know I have been following your posts and this has been a very enjoyable thread. The first attempt was almond paste.. I beat the eggs to super stiff peaks and still got really flat looking cookie things.. So i tossed that batch. The next attempt i used ground almonds. Then i tried to cheat a little and added some cream of tarter to the egg whites and granulated sugar. Again i got a flat cookie.. Always using three egg whites.. So now i have decided on Patrick's advice to use 3 1/2 egg whites more to the four side.. They have been sitting out since last night and I will let them sit till this evening or tomorrow night.. Actually cant do them friday, I will be going away for the weekend.. Should i let them sit till sunday night? Also, I think it would be better in a pastry bag? The one book i have calls for a nozzle with a one inch diameter. Any thoughts?

How about making a ravioli? Make a sauce with the shells.

Yeh.. I have a fear of driving on certain Holidays or Days.. I consider Super Bowl Sunday to be like the Xmas Eve of drunk driving.. So i try to stay off the road as much as i can.. I will be grabbing a bunch of cheesesteaks, hitting a couple of markets and will be audi by like 1 the latest. EDIT TO ADD: I am not going to look for trouble.. Isnt their a prison and a courtroom in the basement of Eagles Stadium.?

Wow.. Never even considered the oven light shattering.. In fact, i didnt have a spray bottle so i was just dumping water from a cup along the oven walls.. Wow, i wish you didnt tell me about that.. Now next time i am doomed for sure.

That trip sounded so great.. I am happy you guys had such a good time.. And was very impressed you made it to Nathans.. After hearing your schedule i was betting against the night finishing with a hot dog.. Very impressive appetites.. Thanks for the pics.

Speaking of self cleaning ovens.. I remember someone on this board mentioning that their friend broke the lock on their self cleaning oven. Can anyone walk me though this process.

I dont really bake a ton of bread.. But after buying Beard on Bread and being really disappointed.. I wanted to buy a good bread book.. So i bought the Bread Bakers Apprentice.. The recipes are really comprehensive.. The instructions are easy, with terrific pictures... Its a awesome book.. So far I tried the Ciabatta and the Pizza Dough.. The pizza came out great too...

This weekend we smoked two turkey breasts and two racks of ribs.. We used our own rub made from Paprika, cumin, a lot of cayenne, white pepper, black pepper, mustard, celery salt, brown sugar, onion, and garlic salt. It was a very spicy rub.. The turkey we put in a brine for 25 hours.. We soaked it in water, salt and our dry rub mixture.. The turkey came out very juicy.. We also made lobster mac and cheese from epicurious.. Here is a picture of the stock.. The final product had crab meat, shrimp and the meat of a two pound lobster.. We used fontina as the cheese.. With all the ingrediants being so good, we were surprised at how mediocre it came. Another side was smoked gouda mashed potatoes.. This came out really good. We baked a ciabatta bread for sanwiches for the next day.. It all came out really really good.. And for dessert we made pot de creme. Excellent.

sorry tried to post something.. anyone know how to post pics these days

In terms of the editing of the show.. do people think that the show is being shown in the order of the actual challenges?

I am in the middle of baking ciabatta bread.. I have a few loaves going right now and have a couple more to go.. I am using a regular kitchen oven and have found the bottoms of the bread to be over moist.. I am thinking that the water bath i am using is making the bottoms too soggy,, Has anyone had this problem.. I just removed the water bath in hopes to solve my problem.. Or should i flip the bread and put the bottom on top.

Maybe its because i have a couple in me, but when i was thinking of names for you.. I looked to see where you came from.. And i saw Mission, BC.. So if you are looking for a play on words or something perhaps, Mission, Baking Company might work.. And there you have your name. Or maybe Mission, Bacon & Company.. Or something to that affect. I tried.

I caught the catfish episode last night. I was surprised that the judges knew so little about food. I don't think of catfish as a particularly exotic ingredient. Yet Steingarten was the only person who said he'd had catfish before (once) - and his commentary about the basic ingredient was that it tasted "muddy". I thought the main reason Batali won is that in most of his dishes - he chopped up the catfish - mixed it with other ingredients - fried a lot of it - and basically managed to come up with dishes that didn't taste like catfish. Even the movie stars on IC seemed to know more about the main ingredients than these panelists did. By the way - who is the woman sitting between Zagat and Steingarten (they gave her name on the Food TV website - but not her background)? Robyn ← I just dont know if its correct to say that Steingarten isnt knowledgeable about food.. Infact, I know he has written things about catfish, down to how their taste buds form. And I believe his comment about the catfish being muddy was in reference to a carpacio dish. I think this gave me a very clear picture of how raw catfish might taste.

I love the scrapple grahm cracker sandwich.. For some reason cocktail franks and lemon wedges made me lose it.. That shizz is funny.

Just stay away from the $1.5 marshmallow they try to stick you for... Those bastards.

Oy veh.. Hickory it is.. I guess i will answer my own question..

I am about 3 hours into smoking and I have run out of mesquite.. I have two turkey wrapped bacons in and some ribs.. Would it be ok if i switch over to hickory wood chips?

One of those please! What did you drink with that.

Since I have only had so far cheese doodles, a couple of beers. two margaritas, and a proscuitto pizza using the Bread Bakers Apprentice cookbook: I am going to have to go with the pizza... But i have planned for dinner very good things.. Smoking two turkey breasts wrapped in bacon, two racks of baby backs, making lobster mac and cheese from epicurious, as well as cesar salad, smoked gouda mashed potatoes from foodnetwork, and the pot de cremes from Luscious Chocolate Desserts.. So, i pray my most delicious thing hasnt happened yet. But basically we live in the city during the week and come out to the country during the weekend.. So I am hoping the turkey will last the week for sandwiches, while the lobster mac and cheese is "dinner". But i think a bit of everything will be eaten tonight. But there is two of us and a four year old. So lets hope she like one thing. Hopefully this will be picture worthy.

Oh yeah, talking about rubbing people the wrong way. In a japanese kitchen, there are two things that are sacred, your knife and cutting board. Standing with your dirty shoes on a cutting board is possibly the worst sign of disrespect (honestly, I can't think of anything worst). Kaga-san should have immediately summoned a Seppukku so that at least Flay could regain face in front of millions of bewildered Japanese viewers. ← You cant think of anything worse then putting dirty shoes on a cutting board.. I have thought of a few more parts that would be more offensive.

When you meet customers from all over the country and you give them suggestions of where to eat in their own cities that they have never heard of.