Sethro

Sounds like Kuromitsu. Its basically a sugar "consome" that is served with geled or creamy desserts in Japan. Its kinda trendy in NY now too.

Its Blue Smoke, and they do a really good job with it. Its actually my favorite thing on the menu...which is why I don't eat there very often...

I have to dig up the recipe, but my alltime favorite pie dough is corn oil based (and yes, it is a Southern Grandma recipe). EDIT: Found it... 2c AP flour 1 tsp salt 1/2c corn oil 1/4c water Doesn't get much easier than that, although it is kind of a pain to roll, even comapared to a real brisee.

Well there's a bunch of different ways to do it. I actually like to cany whole slices, and then cut away the rind/peel leaving only the star-shaped translucent flesh. When I do that I usually throw the slices in much earlier (as soon as the syrup boils) because I want there to be time for the flesh to really confeit. Of course, I then end up throwing the peels away, so I guess this is kinda irrelevant where your question is concerned.

Sounds like you picked an appropriate spot. The atmosphere is very casual, the well-lit open kitchen makes for a cool/hip vibe, and the servers are generally really friendly. I'm not sure I would draw any comparisons to Nobu (personally I much prefer WD...Nobu is great but if you've eaten there a couple times you've pretty much eaten the menu), but the cusine is very engaging and somewhat challenging. Perfect for young, adventureous foodies.

It's ironic, because Anitta's foie dumpling at Annisa is the best dumpling ever ever EVER. It has a perfect amount of filling, robust flavor, and a thick aldente skin. WTF is going wrong at Rickshaw, I wonder.

Wow, now a bunch of my old haunts are comming back to me... Swadee House of Thai Thornwood Very good Thai home cooking. Still the best Massaman curry I've had to date. The waitresses are cute too. Horsefeathers Terrytown Really good burgers with a tangy mystery sauce (horseradish based). Also superb nachos with the same sauce, and a really gooey french onion soup. Good satisfying bar foods and a 40s pub theme. Plus they have Trivial Pursuit cards on every table, which is like the best idea ever. The Flying Pig Mt Kisco Located IN the train station--which is weird--its basically a prepared meal dealer with some intersting and often well executed selections. Worth trying is the pulled pork, which is far better than it ought to be. Strega Pleasantville Contemporary American cuisine, with an unfortunate atmosphere thats a cross between snooty upscale and neighborhood joint. They do take out though, or you can eat in peace at the bar. Some surprising offerings, dailly catches, and good homemade pasta are some of the nice surprises. Schechuan Empire Pleasantville Good American chinese food with a decently imitated "real" restaurant experience. I remember the crispy orange beef being really excelent. Lots of screaming kids and parties of 12, but hey, its the burbs. Take it to go. Marios Chappaqua Damn good NY style pizza. Large house slices that never disapoint. I think they still carry RC Cola too! They might have bought 700 cases in 1985... La Mandas White Plains Yes, its become common knowledge by now that I am a total whore for La Mandas. I will stand behind my claim that they have THE best pizza in NY (or anywhere else I've been for that matter), the wonder that is pizza bread, a perfect house salad, county-famous chicken scarapiello and a really unique "burnt" galliano cheesecake. Easilly one of my favorite restaurants ever. The Fish Cellar Mt Kisco Decent seafood fare. Everything is fresh, nothing is too exciting. If you want fish, you got it, and in that sense its good I guess. Personally I think that The Kittle House and The Iron Horse Grill are waaaay over-rated (and priced) so I'll go ahead and second their recomendations only half-heartedly. The Eastchester Seafood Gourmet (I think thats their oficial name?) can be good but can also be very inconsistant. The service is useless and the desserts are horrible. I mean some of the worst $7 desserts you will find anywhere. Hope some of those suit you.

Yeah, I usually fold in about 3/4c whipped cream to an 8 yolk curd, and then chill it for about 2 hours before piping it into tart shells. That way it has just enough body to stand up higher than the tart shell while still retaining a smooth surface.

When a meringue "breaks" like that it's usually due to humidity. Try using an Italian (cooked sugar syrup) meringue, which is the most stable. I have to agree that Key Lime pie is far better naked or with just whipped cream.

It's been a couple years since I've been, but I remember Santa Fe in Tarrytown (that's Westchester, right?) having very good although typical Mexican fare. I should warn that the Zagat guide recomends VERY bad Mexican joints when it comes to Westchester, for some reason. I went up there to take my Mom out to dinner, and we arbitrarilly picked the Mexican with the highest food score, and it was terrible.

Ha HA! Gellan and micri. Man I have alot to learn...

Good question. If I had to guess, I would say it's frozen on a sheet pan, cut into cubes and just thrown in the deep fryer... On second thought, it probably involves gellan and at least three other ingredients I have no idea how to use.

<insert obligatory La Mandas plug here>

I always go 1oz for whites and .6oz for yolks. Unless your recipes are really finickey that oughta do the trick.

Uh...looking at his recipes makes me feel like a very, VERY bad pastry chef.

I like to know exactly what I'm going to do everyday, long before I arrive and start setting up. I have a production list broken down to the individual components of every dessert, and color coded to indicate baking, frozen items, sauces, etc. Before I breakdown at the end of my day, I check off everything I need to do the next day. That way, when I come in, I know where I have to start (everything that needs to be rested or baked first, everything I need for diner that day, followed by everything I need for lunch tommorow, prep for sauces and bases, etc). Another biggie is low-boy efficiency. If I ever have spare time I juice a bunch of lemons and sepperate a bunch of eggs and quart everything up. That way if I somehow get screwed up and have to rush, alot of the tedious stuff is taken care of already. On the subject of eggs, another great tip is to ask everyone working in the kitchen if they're using only whites/yolks for anything. Chances are there's some knucklehead garde manger that's throwing away 20 whites a day which you could be using. Figure out what needs to be used up before you order a bunch of stuff for a special, on a whim. If you have a bunch of one-third full fruit cases going rotten in the walk-in, you are sombody's nightmare. It may not be awe-inspiring to do a strawberry special two-weeks in a row, but if you have it you really ought to use it. In an anywhere near organized operation there will be someone keeping tabs on how much you spend on special vs how many you sell. That leads into over-production. Dessert specials sell poorly, period. Probably in part becasue most servers are too busy/distracted to tell customers they even exist. I aim to make very small batches of everything for specials. 86ing specials is no big deal--it actually lokks good. Conversely, I'd rather put out a whole half-sheet of chocolate cake for comida than have one customer be informed that the chocolate menu item is kaput. I could type forever and not even scratch the surface, but I think those are some helpful organizational tips.

I do cheesecake on a 1/2 sheet in a rectangle mold all the time. The one thing you may come across is a cracked surface. Basically, with anything that incorporates air while whipiping/beating (creamcheese, eggs, etc), the larger it is the more the surface will crack while baking. A good, light recipe won't develop the structure necesary to support the surface weight, so you will have cracks most of the time. That's why we use acetate rings with large souflees to try and give support to the surface (which in my experience doesn't ever prevent cracking 100%). Nobody serves cheesecake naked anyhow, so it really doesn't matter . Plus, cheesecakes, souflees and the like are rustic by nature. The best tasting cheesecakes I've ever had look like they've been through a war. Of course if you desire a flawless surface, you can go to Juniors and get a very flat, dense cheesebirck.

My vote goes to H&H. Its something about the sweetness. I find with Tal all I get is salinity, and I prefer a nice balance. Both H&H and Tal have gret crust, though.

No. You can make cones out of them exactly the same way you would with parchment triangles though. The cups are a little trickier. I would cut each leaf into 2 or 4 "comma" shapes (depending on how big I wanted the cup, then cut a slot just past the round part of the comma (which would be the bottom of the cup) and a slit on the end furtherst from the round part (the tip). Then I would wrap the tip around about 1+1/4 times, till the tip went through the slot, and the slit in the tip caught to hold it in place. Then I would manuever the round part up through the hole, and then wedge it back down so it stuck. The round has to be just larger than the opening of the loop you create, so it will wedge itself in place when you press it back down. Obviously I would cut all the slits and slots for the whole bunch at once, stacked up. It's uh...easier than I'm making it sound. Each cup took about 5-10 seconds.

Bamboo leaf? I used to make canes and cups out of it for large parties so we wouldn't have to quenelle 30 scoops ala minute.

Wow those are some really great reponses. I've definately got some reading to do! FYI I was going to mold the ice creams (its mango AND matcha ice creams) in just a ring of acetate directly onto the bottom cookie, apply the top cookie, freeze and then remove the acetate. I simply don't have ring molds enough to be poppin them in the freezer. Anyways, I'll be sure to let you know which recipe I try and if it works. Thanks!

I discovered tht mango and green tea actually go awesome together during my run in Nobu's pastry department. It all started with a mango green tea greanite component and built from there. Anyways, I was thinking about using shortening, but I was afraid that a higher fat cookie would actually free harder. In my experience the softest freezing thing is an egg foam cake, which is very low in fat. Of course I'll have o do some experimenting, but its kinda inconvinient time-wise, as I'm a one man show right now. I was hoping somebody here might have already done the hard work for me.

That sounds neat, but I actually need a "cookie" that will freeze soft. I plan on filling the ice creams into an acetate ring diretly on the cookie, so that I don't have to keep ice cream at a super-pliable temp for service (and so I'll have perfect, clean sides). So what I basically need is a cookie that freezes very soft. Actually I wanted to come as close to the traditional black chocolate variety you'd get from the good humor man. I'm going all food-foward with the ice cream (mango matcha) so I want the cookie to be familiar.

So I'm ready to hop on the bandwagon and do an ice cream sandwich dessert. Anyone have a recipe for something that will behave like the frozen cookie component?

/\ Yeah well I can't let a White Plains thread go buy with out mentioning it. You ever had their cheesecake? It's burnt on top, dry in the middle, wet on the bottom, and completely mis-shapen. Yet somehow...its the best cheesecake ever.