Shalmanese

It's less mess and requires less equipment which can be important in something like an office or dorm room environment. Also, some places have hot water on tap.

Congrats, I'll try and drop into the U-District location.

I would, but don't those invariably have sugar added?? It always seems like the blueberry "juice" is more like blueberry "syrup", which would undoubtedly throw off the balance of the recipe. ← I don't think I've ever seen frozen blueberries with sugar added. Maybe a little citric acid but that's it. Frozen and then thawed juice will be thicker because it contains a higher proportion of dissolved fruit solids as freezing breaks down the cell walls.

Because perfect nowadays = machine made. It may not be fact but it's perception. It's similar to how being fat used to be a status symbol and now being skinny is.

The total amount of copper in a pot would fetch $3 - $5 on the commodities market so it's unlikely that a drop in price is going to significantly make a difference.

Did anyone else notice how perfectly matched the knife draw was? Fabio got the italian chef, Stefan got the swedish chef, Carla had the old school french chef, Hosea had the seafood dish and Leah had the dish right out of culinary school.

The real question is, if you take a piece of monkfish out of the pan and cut into it, will there be any juice spilling out of the meat? If so, does this not happen to other fish? If so, then monkfish needs to be rested for reasons other than carryover heat and thus, should be treated differently from other fish.

Resting has 2 purposes in meat: To equalize the temperature between the relatively hot outside and relatively cool inside. The right amount of time for this can be determined via checking for carryover stabilization with a probe thermometer. The other purpose is to allow the reabsorption of juice into the muscle so that it does not leak onto the cutting board on serving. I'm not sure whether the second phenomena applies to fish or not but the first definitely does. If you're grilling or sauteeing a piece of fish, then it's going to benifit from some resting to get the core up to temp. Whether that's any more resting than it takes to plate the thing is another matter.

I'm wondering, for mashed potatoes, I now do the double cooked method where you hold at 70C for an hour to set the starch granules and then boil. Would this work for fries as well? What would the end result taste like?

I can understand ice baths in a restaurant context where ice is plentiful and you're regularly blanching large batches of food but in my home kitchen, ice is scarce and a pain in the ass to make. Whenever I've needed to shock something, I've always done it under rapidly running cold water and I've not noticed my vegetables being any less vibrant. Does an ice bath make THAT much of a difference? Is it something I should be doing or should I just stick to what I'm doing now?

I prefer bacon ends to normal bacon and buy it when I can get it. The variance in size and shapes means you get a mix of crispy and soft in the same dish and I think it adds an interesting variance.

Soups, braises, curries, chile, anything with a significant liquid component generally freezes well.

I'm curious with temps hitting 47C has anyone attempted sous vide salmon by just leaving it on the counter?

Sounds like Salted Duck Egg.

From Anthony Boudain's "The Nasty Bits" on Ferran Adria So apparently Ferran Adria knows how to do it.

The Californian EVOO from Trader Joes is good enough I'll happily put it in my salads but cheap enough that I won't hesitate to saute with it as well. It's not rock bottom in price but low enough that it's simpler for me just to have the one OO. $5 for 500mL IIRC.

It's relatively rare for a method to be technique heavy enough that significant practice is required, poaching eggs being a notable counter example. Most of the time, the actual technique is easy enough to be mastered in 2 or 3 goes and the real difficulty lies in being able to taste effectively which is universal across techniques.

Why not just come up with a better story so customers will explain it to each other? If customers are passionate enough to be curious about the name, then they'll be passionate enough to evangelize on your behalf.

Unrelated but I've noticed that dumplings seem to become a touchstone for Chinese immigrants around the globe. Even though it was mainly northern Chinese who made and ate them in China, outside of China it seems like every family knows how to make them. I think it's mainly to do with the social aspect of it. It's a dish which is far more amenable to many hands in the kitchen. As for why it's not more popular in restaurants, my guess is it's because they're fairly labor intensive to make and the economics of it don't work out. You have to have someone in the kitchen fairly skilled and committed to making them.

How much of this did you know before you started class? It seems like any reasonable home cook should at least have attempted if not mastered a lot of what was done in the first couple of classes.

The crackle of freshly cooked rice when you take the cover off.

I'm not normally a person who likes hyper-specialised kitchen equipment but I really, really want a one click butter cutter

I've eaten cassoulet 3 times and made it once and I've never been too impressed with it. This thread has inspired me to try it again.

President-Elect Obama has just named Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. There isn't too much information that I can find out about this guy so far but it looks like he's very strongly in favor of environmental measures but, being from Iowa, is also heavily involved in Big Agriculture and will probably not be pushing for a farm bill with a reduction of subsidies to the Corn industry. It looks like Michael Pollan was never even in the running. What does everyone think of the new Obama pick?

Another shout out for the OXO good grips.