Sethro

I've made savory sorbets in a batch freezer. I used a barely detectable amount of glucose, which is about a third as sweet as sugar (about 100 grams to a quart) and a vegetable stock with high salt content. Basically the veg stock is a trick to hide a lot of salt, which depresses the freezing point. Corn Sorbet (for batch freezer) 3c white corn, pureed (and cob, removed before straining) 4 sprigs thyme 2c vegtable stock (salted) 1c water 1c buttermilk 1tsp butter extract 100g glucose 3g stabilizer

A guy at my gym was telling me about this place (apparently he "auditioned" for a wait staff position), and I just assumed he was a compulsive liar. Now that I can confirm this place actually exists, some of the stuff he told me was required of the wait staff sounds absolutely unbelievable. For instance, apparently waiters are supposed to "sneak up" on tables--like ninjas!!! I can't believe this is a high end establishment, with hokey theatrics like that. I'm not sure my world is ready for a marriage of Nobu and Chucky Cheeses just yet.

On the subject of towels and the like: I keep a regular stock of about 12 towels, 4 flat half sheets, 4 flat quarter sheets and 4 size 42 jackets in the back-left of my lowboy at all times. That's where I keep all my tools too, including chinoise and bain. Anything that would need to be snatched up during service is kept on the right side of the lowboy. Just to be safe though, I stack quarts of egg white in the front of the left side before Ilevae at night, like a wall. Every morning I replenish whatever linens I depleted the previous day. Never again will I take hot trays out of the oven using my apron or folded up sports towels.

I always say this, but the most helpful thing I can do for myself is to envision a process repeatedly before I begin it. Every moment of down time I have I am subconsciously planning my next day/project down to the very last footfall. That way, when I show up and have 6 hours to do 10 hours worth of work, I feel like I've done it already just from all the time I've invested in envisioning it. I find that particular practice invaluabe. Hope that helps.

Success! We have achieved stickiness. I tweaked the Ina Gartener recipe to my liking. Here's what I wound up with: Coconut Sticky Cake 12oz butter 1c sugar 1tsp salt 1c light corn syrup 5 eggs 1+1/2tsp vanilla extract 2tsp coconut extract 2c cake flour 1+1/2tsp baking powder 1tsp baking soda 1c buttermilk 12oz sweetened flake coconut Spray release and sugar molds. Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter with sugar and salt. Beat in Cornsyrup, followed by eggs and extracts. Beat in 1/2 of the dry ingredients, followed by the buttermilk and then the remaing dry ingredients. Fold in coconut flakes. Bake for 24 minutes. Cool, unmold and invert. With this recipe I found no need to line the bottom of the molds with additional coconut. Additionally, the corn syrup seems to inhibit the height and doming enough so that its hardly necessary to level them. Yay!

Mmmm that sounds like those Spanish style macaroons that are just milk, sugar, eggs and coconut. I would LOVE the measurements, please! I've been baking them in a fleximold, and lining the bottoms with a thin layer of toasted coconut. They're going to have the tops layered off and then be served inverted so they're nice and neat looking.

I'm not on the official welcoming commitie by a long shot, but welcome and thanks for posting! Post your recipe for sure.

I got the informational DVD in the mail today. I wont have the chance to watch it for a few more days though.

OK, I just tried Ina's recipe. First, I followed it to the tee, and it came out very moist, but not very "coconuty" and definetely not sticky. Then I tried substituting coconut milk for buttermilk, and it came out noticeably worse, so scratch that. I think the solution for the flavor issue would be sticking with the buttermilk but adding a teaspoon or so of coconut extract. Still, my main issue is the stickiness, or rather lack there of. I confess that I've never actually gone and tried to make a cake stickier, so I'm totally in the weeds. I'm thinking about maybe just substituting some of the sugar with corn syrup or glucose, but I have absolutely no idea what that would do. Anyone know anything about sticky-ing-up cakes?

Grand Sichuan on 9th: Ahzou Chicken (I know I'm spelling that wrong) Dry Sauteed beef with bean curd Dan Dan Noodles

Amazon.com has the Kitchenaid Pro for $1199 now. Just an FYI.

I found Ina's recipe last night, thanks. I'm going to test it tommorow, substituting coconut milk for buttermilk. Hopefully the change in acid levels doesn't majorly change the desired texture. I'll let you know the results, of course. FYI that recipe actually calls for sweetened coconut flake, so it should be good to go as is. Thanks for the legwork! I'll check those out as well.

Very good point...I don't know why I was stuck on the dessecated coconut track! If it's not a familly secret, can you post your carrot cake recipe?

Financier is definetely not the texture I'm looking for. I'm looking for something between a carrot cake and an almond joy candy bar. Interesting idea simply substituting coconut in a carrot cake recipe...but Carrot imparts a lot of moisture, while dessicated coconut is basically a sponge. I would think that would lead to a less moist product. Did you mean fresh coconut? If so, have you tried this or seen it done before? In any case, I'm off to search for that Gartener recipe. Thanks! EDIT: Found the recipe, and it looks pretty solid. I'm going to maybe try and substitute half the buttermilk with coconut milk and give it a whirl.

I'm looking for something similar to carrot cake, but a little more dense and gooey. I'm thinking if it had some texture (from desecated coconut) in it, that would be nice too. It has to be sturdy enough to unmold from a flexipan. Anyone have a recipe in the ballpark?

I did take your advice and call the customer service line. Its actually well-set up; I was directed to representatives that dealt with the pro-line frozen dessert maker specifically. Unfortunately, they were still unable to give me a satisfactory answer on run-times. What they did tell me is that the first batch does take over 20minutes, and subsequent batches take 10-15. They didn't seem too sure about that though. I wish I could get some advice from someone who actually uses one... Speed is my concern, not because of time constraint but because of crystalization and over-churning. I want my ice creams spun in 8 minutes or less, and sorbets in 10. So it sounds like the Musso is not the machine for me.

Well I killed my Krupps LeGlacier last month. Lets face it: Krupps is GARBAGE. -8 hour pre-freeze time between each 1.5 pint batch -paddle that doesn't even contact the walls or floor of the canister -imposible to clean without icing over -very hard to seal lid that is extremely easy to snap or crack -shoddy freezing canister that is prone to leaking or bursting If you are dead-set on the under $100 range, I would steer the hell clear of Krupps. Anyways, I was hoping to gather some last minute advice before I go ahead and plunk down serious dough. I've almost decided on the KitchenAid Pro ($1300), but one thing bothers me. The description cites the freeze time at "under 30 minutes", which seems ridiculous for a compressor of that size. Do you figure they are saying 30 minutes for the benefit of knuckleheads who plan on pouring hot base into the machine, or could it really be that slow to freeze a chilled base? I've also done alot of research on the Musso Lussino($600), but I get the distinct impression that the compressor is under-powered and it is indeed very slow to freeze. Plus, I'm always weary of top-loaders knack for freezing a solid centimeter of base on the bottom surface. The Cuisinart Supreme ($300) looks decent enough, but I haven't been able to gather many accounts of first-hand experience. If I'm commting to the $1000+ range, are there other machines I should be looking at before the KA? Thanks for any help, in advance.

There should be no need to freeze them. They'll only be in 85-90 degree chocolate for a second or so. Plus, refridgerating or freezing marshmallows is a bad idea since their moisture levels are very sensitive, being nearly 100% hydroscopic.

The pith is perfectly edible. The point of the blanching is to remove it's bitterness.

WD~50 is my fav, and I'll add Spice Market to the list too. 66 really has a better variety of Pichet's desserts than SM, but you gotta try the Thai Jewels at least once! Also, the dessert tapas at Bolo are pretty neat.

Sorry! I didn't notice your response and question till just now... Basically I tried to incorporate as much salt as I could, and an undetectable amount of glucose. However, then I had a really salty sorbet with decent texture. Eventually I thought about how stock can absorb a ton of salinity with become overly salty tasting, so I experimented with incorporating veg stock into the base. I'd have to dig up the recipe, but in the end what I basically wound up doing was bringing the veg stock, stripped corn cobs and glucose to temp and then immersion blending in the fresh corn kernels(after removing the cobs, of course). I also had a bit of cream in there too. From memory, I think it was: 3 cobs corn 2c veg stock 1/4c glucose 1c cream 2g stabilizer But the sweeter version tasted far "cornier" than the final version, and I liked it much better myself.

I know it won't be easy, but could you try explaining the "crispy peanut butter" to me?

Well, the tomato ice cream contains no animal flesh, so its sort of not up for comparison. Besides, its pretty common knowledge by now that tomato and basil (especially basil!) are great frozen component ingredients. That aside, I would have no problem with the sobresada and basil ice cream either, but to me that is a definete savory course. I welcome frozen components, or any sweet components in savory courses. I think when used well its a brilliant idea. Not I! All of this reminds me of a time when a very finickey exec chef asked if I could make a corn sorbet to accompany a chilled corn soup. The premise was that he'd done a chilled tomato soup in the past and his pastry chef then had provided a savory tomato sorbet that was perfect. The catch was...it has to be completely savory. The only sweetness would be coming from the corn. So after much trial and error I finally found a way to produce a sorbet with no sugar, invert sugar or even glucose that didn't freeze like a popsicle. The irony is though, the first batch I made, which was sweet due to the inclusion of glucose, tasted by far the best with the soup. But it was a sweet frozen component in a savory course, and the chef wasn't prepared to accept that.

Hey, no harm done. I didn't take it in a negative way at all. Firstly I'm thinking of one specific restaurant and one specific flan when I mention "film". I only use that word because its a paper-thin layer of caramel closest to the ramekin that does't stay liquid. So if I just ran a knife around the ramekin and unmolded, there it would be (more often then not), cracking and sliding. It might have had something to do with the caramel and custard mixing a little, for all I know...I never really gave it a serious thought until now. Also I can't pretend to be a qaulified expert on flan by any means! In any case, it was decided we would just invert, hit it briefly with the torch and then unmold, to avoid that little problem. When I mention poking a hole in the bottom (while inverted) thats just to break the vaccuum so it unmolds quick and easy. I always do that if I have a dessert thats known to like to cling to the ramekin. I kinda insert the tip of the pairing knife at an almost horizontal angle, then push the handle down so the tip of the knife raises a little "lip" allowing air to release. Heh, I'm making it sound really complicated when in reality it happens in about .5 seconds.

Really? That's what I've always done with flan or creme carmel. I hit it for a second with the torch, then poke a little hole with the pairing knife and remove the ramekin. Thats just the way I learned at the places I worked. In any case it works fine. I find that when I don't use the torch I will have mostly liquid caramel with one or two solid "films" that slide onto the plate or just look bad. Maybe I do something else wrong along the way...