scott123

This is slightly OT, but does butane burn perfectly clean? I've always been concerned it might leave some petrochemical residue.

A family member went for the Sunday buffet recently and was overwhelmed by the massive number of choices. I've been there a couple of times for dinner over the years and thought it was okay. From the description of the buffet, though, I'm looking forward to giving it another try. I believe Sunday's buffet is a special offering and costs more (around $13). Hey... tomorrow's Sunday...

Is it evaporated milk or condensed milk? Condensed would seem to make more sense to me, since it's used so frequently in dessert making.

Saffron is very good but they were a little inconsistent the two times I was there. Once they spilled black pepper in the chicken dish (at least it tasted like it was an accident) and the other time the saag was scorched (probably not in the kitchen but on the buffet table). They do show a huge amount of potential, though. The saag, although burnt, looked like fresh greens (a rarity) and the chicken was cooked masterfully both times. Even with the mishaps, they're definitely in my top 5 favorites.

Well, I finally made it to the Chand Palace Tuesday night buffet favorably mentioned a few times in this thread. I was very dissappointed. Only one gravied meat dish in the whole joint. Out of the 6 other main courses there were some glaring omissions: No spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, beans or paneer. Out of 7 dishes, 2 were meat (chicken makhani/chicken tikka) and 5 were starch - veggie kofta, potatoes, macaroni, a pea dish, and a carrot dish. And of course, there was bread and rice. Starch as far as the eye can see. The chicken tikka was moist, cooked through (a rarity), and yet had a strong lighter fluid taste to it. The chicken (white meat) in the chicken makhani was dry and tough. The gravy was mediocre at best. The macaroni dish was the biggest insult. As much as I applaud fusion cuisine, adding one more starch dish to this nutritional nightmare was just insult to injury. I'm not expecting Atkins awareness, mind you. Just a little food group variety is all I ask. Maybe I caught them on an extraordinarily starchy day. I'm sure the non meat dishes change from week to week. The biggest disappointment, though, was the single solitary gravied meat dish. I'm pretty sure that's standard fare. This scant offering is unforgiveable for a lunch buffet, no less a dinner buffet, where your options should increase, not decrease. I'd like to think this behavior was just lack of respect for their carnivorous clientelle. Unfortunately, I think it goes deeper than that. The missing green veggies/cheese is indicative of some major cost cutting. Starch is dirt cheap. It's all about giving the customer the least possible value for his/her money. At least that's how I see it.

I do a low fat alfredo with a 2% milk becamel that's quite nice.

You are too kind. If you find yourself in this neighborhood in the near future, my results will be posted here. Especially my pizza crust results as pizza is my raison d'etre :) When people ask me what books on bread they should get, yours are the one's I recommend. After reading your erudite responses to the members of this forum, it only strengthens my opinion of you as a pinnacle of bread making knowledge. Thank you for gracing this forum with your presence.

Thanks! I will definitely seek those out.

I'm a huge fan of Harold McGee, Shirley Corriher, Robert L. Wolke and Alton Brown. I've read everything they've written, and most more than once. I'd like to delve further into bread, specifically dough rheology as well as enzymes. I've been able to amass a decent amount of knowledge on yeast from books on brewing, but a good book on that would be great too. Are there any books you'd recommend?

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply. The thought that almond and soy flour might have sufficient glucose for yeast growth would never have occured to me. I will make sure to include a sugarless control in my testing. And your cold turkey/whole grain approach is very sage advice as well. Before jumping on the low carb bandwagon, I was having a great deal of success with long cool rise breads. Although wheat plays a huge role in contributing flavor (obviously), doesn't the yeast play a role as well in that it creates different by products at lower temperatures than at higher ones? I am thinking about utilizing a long cool rise with my low carb bread.

You need sugar for the yeast to feed on if you don't use wheat flour, which I don't. As far as I know, yeast can't survive on the sugars (if there are any) in either soy flour or almond flour (the flours I'm using for bread), so I'm going to have to add some table sugar to keep the little critters happy.

I have been seriously craving pizza for weeks now. I've been formulating recipes in my head for a crust and I'm just about to enter the testing phase. Finding the right amount of sugar to feed the yeast, but no more, might be a little tricky.

I am in the process of developing a low carb bread/pizza crust. I have two versions at the moment. One is a combo of soy flour, almond flour and wheat protein isolate and the other version subs vital wheat gluten for the isolate. So, from a perspective of sustaining the yeast, the WPI version will rely entirely on added sugar, whereas the VWG version will work with both added sugar as well as the trace amount of starch in the gluten flour. My goal is to add just enough sugar to sustain the yeast for the duration of it's lifecycle, and no more, keeping residual sugar content to the barest minimum. My first plan of attack will be to utilize a wet sponge method with frequent whisking to encourage an aerobic environment for the yeast. The second part of my plan will be to mix 8 small batches of dough, each with slightly more table sugar than the last, and then observing the rise I get from each. Would you have any other ideas that might help me in my quest?

D'oh! Sorry about that. Thanks for the information. I still have yet to find the coconut milk of my dreams so I may make the trip.

Belleville/bloomfield? That hasn't been mentioned before. Can you remember the name?

Thanks, I just posted reflections on my Udom/Terri Lee/Han ah Reum road trip on the ethnic grocer thread link above. I seem to get a better selection of Thai ingredients at Top Quality (and Kam Man). Btw, I don't know if it's a summer thing, but Top Quality's stench has been kicked up a few notches the last few times I've been in there. If Maxim's clocked in at a 5 on the stenchometer, Top Quality is definitely at the 10 mark. It's hard to believe that it could get worse. But it did.

I finally got around to taking a road trip for Thai and Middle Eastern ingredients. Within my circle I stopped at Han Ah Reum, Terri Lee's, Udom, and Fattal's. Han Ah Reum is not that great for Thai ingredients. Both Terri Lee and Udom were VERY small and ended up have less selection than Top Quality (formerly Maxim's) in Parsippany. I did time my visit to Terri Lee to coincide with the produce delivery and that was enjoyable - an open air produce 'market' behind the store. Fattals kicked BUTT! The zatar didn't look like it was what I wanted (large container/different colors - still need to learn more) but the marinated chicken breasts were great and the house brand tahini was the best I've ever had. Eventually I hope to go back for some ground lamb, and, when I'm done low carbing, some baklava. The baklava looked mouthwatering.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...39874&hl=ethnic http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...38298&hl=ethnic Included in this is a link to the Han Ah Reum thread. I went to Han Ah Reum looking for Thai ingredients and was disappointed. Top Quality, btw, is Maxim's renamed. The smell is really bad, but the prices are great. Kam man is newer, so it doesn't smell quite so bad, but from the items I priced, everything was more expensive.

Speaking of the best cakes in North Jersey... Is there a chance that ANY of the aforementioned bakeries is anti shortening/pro butter? I've searched far and wide for all butter icings and cakes (and pies for that matter).

The protein percentage distinguishes pastry flour AND cake flour from all purpose flour and bread flour. Modern technology's ability to mechanically extract just about any portion of the wheat kernel puts a very wide number of flours in the realm of the commercial baker. To understand the basics of pastry/cake, AP, and bread flour, it helps to go back to a simpler time. From the two types of wheat, hard and soft, 3 basic types of flours are born. Grind hard wheat and you have bread flour. Grind soft and you have pastry. Bleach it and you have cake. Combine pastry with bread and you have all purpose. That the basic gist of it. Quite a bit oversimplified, but the basic gist. Pastry/cake flours usually have around 7-8% protein Depending on where you live in the US (South - softer flour for pies/biscuits, North - breads) all purpose flour can run the gamut from 7%-12% Bread flour usually clocks in around 11%-14% Where I am (northeast US) unbleached pastry flour (not whole wheat) is almost impossible to find retail. A local baker sells me some of his. I know nothing about shopping for Japanese food. Might this be a good question for the Japanese forum? I am certain that both hard and soft wheat is grown in temperate areas across the globe, so the Japanese should definitely have some sort of soft wheat flour. Also, it may not be cost prohibitive, but you should be able to purchase flour online and have it shipped overseas.

Artificial food coloring doesn't have the overwhelmingly earthy flavor this has.

Thanks everyone for all the great ideas.

The keema was a very vivid, dark red brown (darker and browner than a brick) and the flavor was earthy. I just can't picture deghi mirch getting as dark as this, unless maybe they used an obscene amount of it. And it had little to no heat to it.

Thanks for the tip on the shallots. Regarding the birdseye chilis - are you sure about this? I've been using arbol chilis. Is that a major faux pas?

Thanks Fifi! I'm not familiar with those authors. I will definitely see what they have to say (mole is on my agenda as well )