scott123

Okay, I got a little sidetracked from my quest for homemade halvah, but now I'm back. Does anyone else have a good halvah recipe? Any tips/tricks you'd like to share? This time I'm making it, I promise. And Michelle, my apologies for the delay in answering, but the brand of halvah that I'm endeavoring to duplicate is Joyva.

My own guess is that they would think the undercooked cheesecake was "raw" and that the eggs which go into cheesecake prep weren't "safely cooked" ... don't know if I am saying this correctly but I tend to believe that you will "understand" what I am getting at here. ← I agree, the cheesecake could be perceived as unsafe from a salmonella perspective. That might be hard to combat. In reality, my cheesecakes hit 170 easily, well beyond any risk from contamination. Because of my love for undercooked cheesecake, early on in my experimentation I tried baking one to the lowest temperature possible while still maintaining a safe buffer for egg contamination- 145. Too raw for me.

I think, that with the busy lives my clients lead, if I were to call them and ask them about the texture of cheesecake they'd laugh in my face. They pay me to make these kinds of decisions for them. Even if they did have the time/interest, I'm not even sure my clients could detect a difference between a slightly underdone and a regular cheesecake. In many ways I'm splitting hairs here. The difference between the level of doneness in the center of a cheesecake and on the edge is pretty small. Still, though, my preference for slightly underdone cheesecakes drives me.

As much as I like underbaked cheesecakes, I don't resonate with the unbaked cheesecake concept whatsoever. Definitely not my bag As far as the center goes, yes, a very thick sauce, that's exactly what I like. Don't get me wrong, I don't eat the first bite and throw the rest away. The first bite is ecstatic and the rest is just great. Part of the reason why I bring this topic up is that I'm considering offering cheesecake to my clients. I'm pretty sure I can create an entire cheesecake that has the consistency of the slightly underbaked center you're referring to. Would something like that be marketable or are most people conditioned to cheesecakes that are cooked slightly more?

I like my cheesecake rare My favorite bite of homemade cheesecake is the first. It's all downhill from there as I approach the crust. Most commercial cheesecakes, even a lot of the local mom and pop bakeries seem to produce a cake that's: 1. Drier/cakey rather than smooth/slightly gooey 2. Cooked to a relatively homogenous level of doneness throughout- the first bite is not all the different from the last. Is this what most people prefer? And, just so we're on the same page, I'm referring to a NY dense cheesecake style.

Here's a follow-up. I made the 45 minute trip to Market Basket in Franklin Lakes to pick up andouille. 3.39 a pound (regular price). While I was there I picked up chorizo and bockwurst (never had it but it looked interesting- veal, pork, milk, onions and chives). All their sausages were in the 2.99-3.59 realm, which to me seems exceedingly fair considering most of them are pork and the only thing that changes is the herbs/spices. The andouille looks like kielbasa with different spices, which definitely isn't authentic, but around here, without mail order, that's what andouille has evolved into. Anyway, today I embarked on a big ol pot of gumbo. I opened the package of andouille and cut myself a slice. First note- soap. Like a piney soap. Almost mildewy. It faded very quickly to a porky/fatty taste with a slight smokiness. As I sliced a few more pieces, a few things occured to me: 1. Is it fair to judge andouille in a cold state? I'm not a big fan of cold kielbasa, so should cold andouille be any different? 2. Since I've never had real andouille, my baseline is definitely skewed to the andouille flavored kielbasa you get at Trader Joes/Whole Foods. 3. The soapy/piney/mildewy note is thyme. Fresh thyme, and a LOT of it. 4. Not a huge amount of smokeyness. Looking at the pictures of real andouille and the smokehouses they make them in, I'm certain the real thing has a lot more smokeyness. 5. Not a lot of salt. This blew me away as I was quite certain they'd be salty as heck. 6. Good level of heat. Based upon my meager andouille experience, I am very very pleased with this sausage. It's about a thousand times better than kielbasa for making gumbo and on par with anything I've gotten at Whole Foods/Trader Joes. I could do without so much fresh thyme, but I'm sure that simmering it a bit in the gumbo will temper that. I could also do with some more smokeyness, but hey, for 3.39, I'm not complaining. This stuff is amazing. As I drove home, I crunched a few numbers. If get ground pork for $1.79 and lose, say, 1/3 to the smoking process, that comes to about 2.30/lb after smoking. To be able to get decent faux andouille for only a dollar more per pound- without making it myself... definitely, I'll be going back.

I've been reading through several of the posts that proclaim that the foods in many of these Asian supermarkets may not be fresh or consumable based on the smell in the store. Most of these Asian supermarkets carry items that are not in traditional American supermarkets (obviously). Does an unfamiliar odor necessarily equal a "bad" odor? Just because we as Americans (for the most part) do not recognize the smells of an Asian market does that have to mean that the food is unfresh or the products/overall market are unsanitary? It is tough to think that many of these markets could stay in business selling products that are making the general population ill. ← Hitmanoo, I'm sorry, but I think you're reading something into this thread that isn't there. This isn't about cultural unfamiliarity. I smell many unfamiliar odors when I shop in Han Ah Reum in Little Ferry or Mitsuwa in Edgewater, but I don't equate these odors with 'bad' or perceive them as a sign of potential uncleanliness. Top Quality and, to a very small extent, Kam Man, have a putrid smell to them. A putrid smell that would be recognizable as putrid to any person of any culture. Unclean smelling supermarkets cross cultural boundaries. I'm hesistant to purchase meat at the Morris Plains Shop Rite for the same reason- a crummy smelling store.

Have you had the pasteurized stuff go bad on you? I've never had any of the pasteurized cream go bad on me and I go months past the expiration date. It gets lumpy from the fat separating from the water, but a brisk stir resolves that. Even with the innovative approach of adding sugar to it for freezing, I'm sure there's a certain amount of impairment. You might want to hold on to your cream a little longer and see what happens. If it turns, I'd be very surprised.

Brand? I thought the heavy cream I was buying at Trader Joes, Garelick, was only pasteurized, but the labeling recently changed and it now says ultra-pasteurized. Since the taste is the same (doesn't taste any more cooked) and it reacts the same way when whipped, I'm guessing it was ultra-pasteurized all the time. I don't think there's any regulations forcing a company to label their cream "ultra-pasteurized." It can be ultra-pasteurized but still only say 'pasteurized' on the label. Needless to say, I'm a little bummed that what I thought was special cream ended up being garbage cream all along. I love Trader Joes, but this is definitely a black mark. I doubt that Garelick is national. If your Trader Joe's heavy cream only says 'pasteurized,' don't fall for it. Call the manufacturer and find out for certain. Dollars to doughnuts... it won't be. The other cream I was using, Welsh Farms, recently switched to ultra-pasteurized. I hate to say it, but I think pasteurized cream is not long for this world. It'll be a sad sad day when that occurs. The only non ultra pasteurized cream I can get my hands on is the locally produced plastic bottled stuff at Whole Paycheck. I'm not paying that much money for cream. Not the way I use it.

Jamaican Restaurants in New Jersey http://www.coolrunninsjamaica.com/

At which point are these sweeteners added to the cream? I'm guessing after heating, correct?

Alan, as far as I know, cream doesn't have to be boiled for ganache. I think boiling is common practice because it's an easily discernable state/temperature for people to work with. I've come across quite a few recipes where the cream is boiled and then added to the chocolate directly. I've also seen recipes where the cream is allowed to cool briefly before adding it to the chocolate. That's my approach. Ideally, you want the cream to be just hot enough to melt the chocolate and no more, as the more heat the chocolate is exposed to the more volatile flavor compounds are lost. At least that's what the experts say.

I was in Kam Man Foods (on Rt. 10 in East Hanover) the other day and couldn't help notice that they had ground pork for 1.79. It looked pretty fresh, but the smell of the store doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the level of their cleanliness. Sure, it's way better than Top Quality in Parsippany, but I still stick to packaged goods/washable produce when shopping in most Asian grocers. The exception to this would be Han Au Rheum, but that's a little too far for me to travel. Anyone buy there meat there? And, if so, how was your experience?

Maybe this is a dumb question, but I see recipes using boneless pork butts, but yet I've never seen a boneless pork butt in the supermarket. It's always bone-in picnic. Am I missing something here? Are the boneless butts selling out before I get there? Are the boneless butts being ground and not sold whole? What's going on? Besides finding the answer to this, does anyone have a good inexpensive source for butt in northern NJ?

I've been working with a chocolate lately that isn't quite sweet enough, so I've been adding some sugar to my cream before bringing it to a boil. Almost immediately after reaching a boil, the cream loses all it's creaminess, turning translucent/almost clear. What's going on here? Is the elevated boiling point from the sugar causing this? Should I melt my sugar separately and then add it to the heated cream?

Well Alan, it's funny you bring this up. I just got finished dismantling the firebrick from my oven. Almost immediately after obtaining all the necessary equipment to make vulcan oven style pizza at home, I decided to go low carb. I thought it was going to be a few month thing and then I'd go back to my pizza quest. Well, here were are almost two years later and I'm still doing the low carb thing. It's a trade off. I miss pizza tremendously (both home made and take out) but I do feel significantly better following this lifestyle. I still firmly believe in everything that I've stated here- that with the right ingredients and enough thermal mass, vulcan oven style pizza can be made it home. The vision is as real to me as the monitor in front of me. At some point I will make it a reality. Btw, as I re-read this thread, it was quite embarassing as to how little I knew at the beginning. Although we didn't always see eye to eye, I learned an amazing amount from Sam and Jason. Thanks guys.

Ken, have you considered making your own pizza? I don't subscribe to the theory that great pizza comes from the right water. Having lived in New Jersey for 25 years and Manhattan for 10, I can say that both Jersey water and New York water make phenomenal NYC style pizza (in the right hands). Japanese water will be fine. The tricky part will be finding the right flour. Still, I'm certain it can be done. It is my belief that any self respecting New Yorker, regardless of baking experience, would have enough drive to create a NYC style pizza that was better than something you'd describe as "cracker like." Where there's a will, there's a way As far as the bagels are concerned... I wouldn't recommend a DIY approach to those. Whatever leads you get, I'd call them first before you go. Ask them if they make the bagels on premises. Ask them if it's a 'water' bagel, if boiling the bagels is part of the process. If they use high protein wheat flour/malt flour. If they get confused by any of the terminology/processes, hang up.

I'm thinking about using agar for a glaze. Is agar sensitive to salt like gelatin is? Does the finished product have to be either blended or passed through a chinois in order to be smooth? Does blending a gel thickened solution weaken the agar's ability to thicken?

August Moon. Seriously old school chinese restaurant. I grew up on their spare ribs. From age 5 to 10 that was about all I'd eat- spareribs and hamburgers. Funny, I'm still a little like that I think the cheaper Hunan Wok a few doors down took a lot of their business. It's sad - Hunan Wok just wasn't as good.

I, too, have over 60 spices. And the differing quantities I buy of each makes storing them very tricky. There's no way I could store all my spices in my kitchen. Just like I have a storage area in the basement for infrequently used kitchen tools, I have a similar area for infrequently used spices. If I store them in glass jars, I get a decent amount of lifespan from them. I don't resonate with the fridge concept. The only way my spices would fit in the fridge would be in plastic bags. Plastic bags are way too air permeable. With fridge odors and air permeable bags, my spices/herbs would be serious odor collectors. Not good. Frequent use/Short term storage - in a cupboard in small glass bottles or, if I have to, plastic bottles. Infrequent/Long term - in glass in a cool dry place (my basement)

Linda, my advice... let it go. You could devote a few hours getting to the bottom of the popcorn salt mystery, or, in thirty seconds you could make your own and wash your hands of the whole thing. I've worked in grocery stores. They're constantly discontinuing items/moving things around with no rhyme or reason. It's the nature of the business. Who knows why they stopped selling popcorn salt or if they shoved it in some corner that takes hours to find? Don't worry about it. I find making my own popcorn salt to be a very liberating experience. Anything that I can do to lessen my dependency on agri-business makes me feel good. They can discontiue/continue popcorn salt until they're blue in the face- I could care less. I'm off the grid. And if it can involve a fraction of the time/money that it would shlepping myself to the store, all the better. Ghandi would be proud.

Put some table salt in the coffee grinder you use for spices. 30 seconds later, you've got popcorn salt. Clings wonderfully to nuts as well.

I think that the old law had compliance issues because it was complex and confusing. Far too much gray area. Although there are still loopholes, I think the message is much clearer- there's no smoking in restaurants. Owners will be much more aware of it, as will smokers. Because the law is so cut and dry/blatant and fines potentially high, I think compliance will be surprisingly ubiqituous. If there isn't compliance, this could be some seriously easy money for law enforcement. I've seen what state troopers will do for a $150 ticket. If the 'smoking police' (whoever they may be) get a tip that a restaurant isn't complying, believe me, they're showing up. A non complying restaurant is money in the bank. Those two areas- a clear cut/straightforward law and potential revenue for law enforcement. There'll be compliance. Will there be compliance right off the bat on April 15th? That I'm not so sure. We'll have to see.

Speaking of Fairfield, there's a place in the Calandra Bakery mall (forget the name) that's dirt cheap, greasy as heck, incredibly tacky interiour, cafeteria style, completely unsuitable for a date, but man is it delicious. How pretentious is your date? Could she handle the Chinese American equivalent of Micky D's? I still can't get over the freshness of the chicken/broccoli in the Chicken and Broccoli. That's my favorite Chinese restaurant in Morris County.

Thanks! I just called to check up on the price. The guy first said "uh, I think it's 4.99" and got really irked when I asked him to find out for certain because I'd be traveling a distance. He then yelled to another guy and HE said it was $3.39 a pound. I asked if it was on special and he said no, that was the regular price. His flippant attitude/relaying of information didn't instill a lot of confidence in his answers, but if 3.39 is indeed the price, wow. Sorry Brooks, at some point I'll be doing my part to help the Southeastern American economy (and get some kickass sausage!), but for the time being, 3.39 is the magic number. Besides, even though the public has awoken to many of the culinary delights of Cajun/Creole cuisine, I don't think they've even begun to scratch the surface of the culinary Mecca that is New Orleans (and the surrounding areas). Once people really get clued in, watch out, you guys are be flooded with tourist dollars. Enjoy whatever empty highways you have will you can. $3.39... *rubbing my hands together* Ooooh boy, gumbo here I come!