Franci

Recent dinners Crescentine, broiled shrimps and pan seared scallops with broccoli stalks and carrots Roasted chicken and potatoes, string beans and Swiss chards stalks Spanish mackerel, sauté Dover sole filets in brown butter, steamed broccoli and cavolo nero

Ann -- those pizzas are absolutely beautiful - if you don't mind my asking -- what did you use to bake them? Based on the charring, I would assume some sort of outdoor oven at high temp...Really, really beautiful. Unpopular Poet,Thank you. I followed the instructions on baking pizza from the cookbook - Flour Water Salt Yeast. Instead of my stone being near the bottom of the oven, I moved it to the top. Preheated to 550°F for an hour, and then just before sliding the pizza on to the stone, I turned on the broiler for five minutes to boost the surface temperature. Switched back to 550°F, slide in the pizza and baked for five minutes. Turned the oven to broil and baked another two minutes. I wish I had known about this method before. My favourite pizzeria is in Victoria and the pizzas are baked in a wood burning oven. Last night's pizzas were very close, in looks and in taste. All they were missing was that wonderful wood oven flavour. ~Ann Yes, this method works really well, I tried in the past. Too bad with my new "old" oven I cannot do this!

It looks fabulous Ann!

Yes, the children were very happy, and also their French teacher. 3 galettes (one is missing from the photo) and 2 couronnes for 27 children are all gone!

It worked pretty well, this morning has been really easy putting together the galettes, I already cut all the full pastry rounds and I had the idea of spreading the filling in a pasta dish which left the required 1 inch space a the border and the rounder shape at the edges of the filling make it easy to seal the pastry. Thanks, FrogPrincess! It's going to become my staple recipe, only thing is I don't find the conversions accurate. For me 1 cup of almond flour is about 90 g, I used 120.

Today I made a couple of couronne des rois then a galette (thanks FrogPrincess!), tomorrow I'll bake 3 more

Thank you, I think I will keep playing with just one recipe to get what I want.

Learn to make life easier...it still doesn't sink that I have two young children and time for cooking is limited. I would really like to get creative with the short time I have. Often, at dinner time, I feel like at rush hour in a restaurant kitchen...20 to 30 minutes to cook my meals.

Great! Thanks a lot. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks, FrogPrincesse. The teacher told me she is going to serve the galette in the afternoon, so I have all the time to bake in the morning. Did you use the egg wash or water to seal? I bought 4 puff pastry, so I'm going to bake one tomorrow just to make sure of getting the right cooking time and temperature with my oven. I'll form all the disks tomorrow, make the almond cream and just assemble and bake on Friday morning. I'm also working on my couronne. After the 2nd failed and last attempt with the Ideas on Food people brioche...I'm making Paula Wolfert brioche in the food processor (it's on Egullet) and so far looks really good. It is basically like a no knead but she got it better, I think.

I mixed 130 g 10X sugar with 2 tablespoons egg whites, some drops of lemon juice (which maybe was a mistake affecting my color), 2 tablespoons vodka (to make it porous) and some black food color. I made a light caramel with 500 g sugar brought to 145 c and quickly stirred in the prepared mix. Use a tall pot. Quickly pour in a lined rectangular pan. When cold you can break by hand.

Ok, forgive me, must be that I'm in bad shape but I didn't realized of the rest of the thread, only read the from Frog Princess on...

Hi FP! I'm here for advice. I need to make some galettes for a class of 27 children this Friday, now I'm kind of regretting it since I have a fever... I was reading on line and Bouchon bakery book for reference. David Lebovitz cooks the galete for 30 minutes at 375 F, TK goes for 30 minutes plus 30 minutes after rotating at 350F then lower at 325 and cooks for 50 minutes! Basically 2 hours cooking for only one galette. And I have an ancient gas oven so I cannot put more than 1 galette at the time and basically I have no time to bake in the morning. What a huge difference in time and temperature, I'm undecided. What to do? Bake at night? It is not ideal right? It would be better to bake in the morning Other question. David goes only with the almond cream, Keller with a frangipane? Which one? I'm going to buy frozen puff pastry because I don't have time or energy to make it right now. I see on line Fresh direct puff pastry is 340 grams, Keller calls for 400 g puff pastry for a 9 inch galette. Are two boxes of puff pastry enough for 2 galettes or it's a little tight? Can I assemble the galettes at night and keep in the fridge and just bake in the morning with no problem? Or just cut the disk and fill, seal and decorate in the morning? In the south of France, where we were living before, the tradition is the couronne and I'm going to make a couple ready the night before because there are children with nuts allergies and I can omit the nuts. Now I'm trying the no knead brioche from Ideas in food (which I failed once, just to discover that my house temperature was too high...not a problem this days in NYC) adapted to include orange water and some other small changes...let's see if it works because I don't have a stand mixer yet. Good to know because my option for frozen puff pastry are Trader Joe's (not the closest), Whole foods and Fresh direct. Which one? The average size of a puff pastry box in the US is 12 oz, 340 g? Thanks for any advice on this.

Tonight we had a bit of stuffed focaccia pugliese, now I'm craving the onion focaccia Gnocchi al ragu' And a small piece of SV sirloin ( a little mushy) with collards And for the Epiphany (tomorrow), la befana, I made some charcoal.

You can find Napa Cabbage in the Uk, here at Ocado ex. but I remember buying also from Chinese stores in London http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Chinese-Leaf-Waitrose/19010011

Ok, so it is definitely a matter of language. In my mind chewy translates into rubbery. Actually on the ability of the bread to absorb liquid without becoming glue (requirement for pappa al pomodoro or panzanella) I really believe it is a very difficult bread to find. Anna, Italians do like do dip their cookies in milk and the most praised cookies "da inzuppo"- that is the world!- are the one that can hold a lot of milk without melting but I don't think there is this problem for bread, maybe a milk bread is not really suitable for mopping the plate, yes.

Cheaper in the UK...I guess it is not really common here. Too bad because I really liked it http://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Umbrella-Jasmine-Rice-10KG/dp/B00AZJYZIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388805699&sr=8-1&keywords=royal+umbrella+rice Thanks Patrick, I'll try the Elephant brand.

I wanted to share this video of Su filindeu a sardinian pasta made with durum flour my husband keeps telling me that his grandfather, who was from the North of China, uses to eat a bread very similar to carta da musica and the way cullurgionis are closed is so similar to some chinese dumplings.

I generally buy King Arthur's flour. Before Christmas I also bought their Unbleached Pastry Flour (7.50 $ for 3 lbs) and their Perfect Pastry Blend (8.50 $ for 3 lbs) which is a middle between the two in terms of strength. I find these pastry flours are pretty expensive, considering that their 10 lbs sack of AP is 8.95 $. I don't bake a lot of American recipes, more French or Italian, so for baking cakes or cookies I'm cutting KA's all purpose flour with 10% potato starch. And I'm thinking of doing the same for chinese steamed bread or flat breads in general. Do you cut your flour, when? what do you like to sub? For some pasta/bread I also buy the caputo blue (stronger) or red (weaker). What are your preferences depending from what you are making?

Is it easy to find in the US the Royal Umbrella brand of Jasmine rice? That was quite common in Europe. Last week I bought a bag of Lundberg rice and I really disliked it

I said I was going to make cartellate and I didn't. I am using grape molasses in the porridge with some broken walnuts, maybe in my mind recalls grano al vincotto. I used to have a Sardinian roommate at university and she used to bring back from home the most amazing pan'e saba. Btw, I think a lot of people call saba, vincotto, pekmez all the same. I know saba is cooked with dry orange peel, wild fennel pollen, cinnamon and cloves. This time a didn't read cArefully my jar and bought a Lebanese grape molasses...ah, it's grape concentrate, sugar and water....I prefer to buy the Turkish pekmez many times over the Italian fancy vincotto that too often taste like vinegar to me. I love with lamb and mint. And I used to make this cheese appetizer with Gorgonzola dolce and walnuts...

Being Italian my consumption of pasta is quite high. Not only because I like it but it make a very quick meal and having two small children it is a must for me. But, besides pasta, there are other things I make very quickly, to do so, for myself it means that I must have a good pressure cooker and some good stock in the freezer. With the pressure cooker and a total of 15 minutes cooking time I can make very nice soups, risotto 7 minutes in the pressure cooker. I try to keep always some greens cleaned and cut up (no more than 1 day or 2) that requires only few minutes sauteing, to that I add a frittata. Some beans/chickpeas cans are also useful to go along quinoa or couscous dishes. I make very tiny meatballs and just saute' and freeze. Add a bit to a soup. Crepes keep very well in the fridge for a few days, you can fill with what is around. Precooked polenta cookes in less than 10 minutes you can add a mushroom ragu' or some sausages and you have a very tasty quick meal. Smoked fish since you are in the UK? Add some steamed potatoes and some greens.

I know on google there are tons of tips on pantry organization but I'm more interested in your advice. I have a decent size pantry, I know I need some racks to sort cutting boards and baking trays. Some stackable bins http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P5NJFW/ref=gno_cart_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2NVEKMQTGKOW8 to organize tools and jars. I have tons of glass jars, all the same, that I use to store open ingredients. I have some bigger bins bought from King Arthur's flour for storing flour, sugar. Do you mind sharing your favorite products to organize your pantry and any useful tip? Thanks!

For Christmas we have our main meal for lunch. Toasted bread with foie gras for appetizer. Risotto giallo, ossobuco con gremolata, collards and string beans. Ice cream for kids

In my mind confit duck must have that cured feel, salty, shreddable meat like the confit you buy in France sous vide (or in cans). Some are better than others for sure but stil all of them have these commonalities. Here in the States, I haven't bought yet already prepared duck confit legs, I need to get from my farmer's market or Dartagnan, just to compare. My memory is still very fresh. I'll do again the 82C 12 hours but with longer curing and compare.