Smithy

Raspberry filling in a chocolate (or chocolate chip) cake is a Good Thing. I imagine the above-mentioned coulis would be excellent on a chocolate pie, if you could come up with a non-dairy pie filling. Dark chocolate and raspberries, mmm. I wonder if it's possible to make raspberry fruit leather?

Welcome, Mrsg47! We love to talk about fruit around here: eating it, cooking it, preserving it...and there are a few gardening topics also. What kind of fruit do you grow in your orchard?

You lucky gal! 1. Sorbet. Note I'm not suggesting sherbet or ice cream, but just sorbet. You can make it with raspberries alone, or in combination with nectarines or peaches, probably other fruit as well. 2. Cook them down and strain them, then season as needed (a bit of sugar, possibly some lemon juice to brighten the flavor) to make a coulis that you can drizzle over cake, fruit salad, chocolate,.... This freezes well, as do the berries themselves. The sauce takes less space, of course. Something like this sauce can also be used to glaze a roast chicken or pork, if you don't overdo it. 3. I'm sure you've thought of jams or jellies, but I'll mention them anyway. None of these is a baked product as you asked, so I may be way off the mark, but someone else will be along with their favorites. These are mine.

Is this one of the crumpets Kerry bought, or did you make them this time? I love crumpets. Can't suss why they haven't caught on like English muffins (which I don't like) on this side of the border.

Lovely stuff, huiray, and thank you for the links. Catpoet, I wouldn't have thought something called 'gooseberry goo' would be so pretty, but I'd have been wrong! :-)

liuzhou, the chicken and couscous look delicious. Please tell more about the chicken poaching method. Do you start with chicken cut into pieces rather than an intact bird? Is there a minimum ratio of water to bird necessary to ensure that the bird is fully cooked before the water cools? It looks like a gentle way of treating the meat, in addition to using minimal heat.

Shelby - or anyone else with a surfeit of zucchini - here's another recipe that may help, although I can't swear to its efficacy in reducing the backlog or one's waistline. :-) I stumbled across this in one of my little Saveur cookbooklets: Chocolate Zucchini Cake. The photo in the booklet looks better than the one on the web page: moist, very chocolate-y. Disclaimer: I haven't tried this recipe for myself...but maybe I'll have to when someone leaves zucchini on my doorstep. The photo in the booklet looks very, very good. Saveur's Chocolate Zucchini Cake: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Chocolate-Zucchini-Cake

That's a shame. What about a grilled vegetable salad? Mine are quite variable: chunks of bell pepper, onion, asparagus, baby potatoes (steamed or parboiled to get slightly tender), skinny eggplant, as determined by my mood and what's available in the market. (I generally add cherry tomatoes as well). These chunks can be marinated in advance, as for kebabs. I've decided that a grill basket is easier than skewers, however. Grill the similar-time items together, and as each is done toss it into a large bowl. I often include chunks for marinated chicken or lamb - again with the shish kebab idea - but the meat can be omitted. Once all is cooked and added to the bowl, dress with your preferred salad dressing - I'm big on vinaigrettes. This is very versatile - you can include chunks of bread, or not, for instance - and the smoky char adds a nice accent to the salad. It's also pretty quick.

Porthos, how's your tomato supply? When I was in the San Joaquin Valley for most of last summer, we kept the kitchen cool by eating a lot of salads. I know salad has been mentioned already, but caprese-style came to mind just now in the context of Meatless Monday. Really good tomatoes, mozzarella, garlic, basil, cured meat (you can keep that part for yourself), drizzled with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and accompanied by a nice baguette or loaf of garlic bread to soak up the juices. The salad marinates itself; you can doll it up with olives (or not). We put salami or sopressata in ours, but wouldn't particularly have missed it if absent. To me that was the essence of summer - followed by a good fruit salad, or peach ice cream. You and I have the same grill! Ours will be cooking brats tonight, under careful supervision of our own all-too-amiable watchdog. ;-)

I may have to change my mind about what to do for dinner. It's cooled down enough to do pita, and I really like that recipe.

I keep reading about solar cookers and how easy they are to make: a box, some aluminum foil, some clear plastic or plexiglass. They can supposedly reach high temperatures in the interior, but I haven't gotten around to trying it. Has anyone in the sweltering regions tried that? I'm thinking especially of you folks in sunny Southern California.

Hmm. It looks as though you didn't keep the berries away from the edges of the pan as instructed. Do you think that's what happened? I've never tried making something like this, and - to be honest - don't know how I would go about doing the swirling they describe to eliminate air pockets around the berries without (a) moving them to the edge of the pan or (b) collapsing the egg whites. I notice, also, that you seem to have used a Bundt pan (or equivalent, with rounded cross-section) instead of an angel food pan, which is more angular. I don't know whether that makes a difference. Some much more experienced baker will be along soon with more ideas, I'm sure. Welcome to eGullet!

That's wonderful news! Thanks for posting the link, Alex. Congratulations, TheStarvingArtist!

I have a friend who won't tell her age, but we know she's in her mid-90's. I think if she could have a cake like that with 1 sheep per year, she'd be willing to be specific. Those sheep are adorable!

I absolutely need that spatula for my delirious kitchen! :-D Thanks for the pictorial tour.

TdeV, in case you haven't noticed it at the top of the Cooking forum, here's a link to the Sous Vide index to which KennethT refers:General Sous Vide index: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136274-sous-vide-index/ The index links to a wealth of information, including charts that you may find useful.

You're right that 185 is 185 no matter the altitude. If you can reach and maintain that desired temperature, then the time at that temperature should be the same if you're processing sealed vessels.

Has the pastry dough recipe or some ingredient in it changed? As an example, maybe they're using a different fat than before.

Your photos are beautiful, and the food looks delicious, as always! I'm interested in this garlic technique. Is it a way to lightly cook the garlic without risking its being overcooked and going bitter? If not, what advantage does it have?

I too think the blueberry-picking story is awesome As a rule, when I see a bear in a berry patch, I decide to go elsewhere...back to the truck, back to the house...but I haven't been out where a radio might be needed. :-DWhile I'm welcoming you, I'll also thank you for explaining your user name! I was translating it to something preposterous like Dept Of Transportation US (along the lines of the SCOTUS and POTUS sites) and I just couldn't believe I had that right. I'm glad the explanation is simpler. ;-)

That apricot chutney looks surprisingly purple. Is that a trick of the light? Regarding olive oil in mayonnaise: Anna, you didn't specify the nature of your nasty experience (probably by choice) but Harold McGee noted that he couldn't get as stable an emulsion with olive oil as with vegetable oils. The last time I read about it, he didn't know why, but apparently it doesn't emulsify as well.

basquecook, how did you do that flounder? It looks nicely browned, and the sauce would look great even if I didn't know it included vodka. My attempts at flounder to date have been very unsatisfactory; it may be relevant that they've been the flash-frozen packaged flounder out of grocery stores. I'd like to try your method before I resign myself to ignoring it in the freezer section.

I'd never heard of it until now. Google results come up with a Ponti Glassa Gastronomica and goes on to say that it's a balsamic glaze, i.e. a heavily-reduced balsamic vinegar. Is Ponti the brand you found, and does balsamic glaze sound right? If so, I'd try it, and start with the assumption that it's similar to a particularly thick balsamic vinegar. I'd start with drizzling it over good fresh stone fruit, glazing it on chicken (maybe pork or lamb also) prior to cooking - or maybe after, or maybe both, and brushing peaches or other stone fruit with it prior to grilling them. It might be good on grilled eggplant. It might go nicely into a stir fry sauce, too; I'm thinking of the glazes involved in dishes like Favorite Concubine's Chicken. If you buy it, please let us know what it's like.

Did the cheese sauce keep the cooked chicken breast from drying out? How long did you bake this? It sounds good...and it also sounds like a dish you intended to make from leftovers is set to be something you make from scratch. I hope you're better at duplicating results after successful experiments than I am. :-D

I tried it last night, and aside from overcooking the corn (too much time for the wattage) it did work well.