Franci

Hi guys! Your recent meals are spectacular. I wish I could participate more regularly to the dinner thread. These are the most recent dinners in my house. Grilled calamari Ottolenghi's cauliflower fritters Baked cod

I have Red Boat 40 N and Blis. Blis has 1570 mg (65%), per serving size, 1 Tsp or 18.8 g, on 40 N says 1 serving size is 1 TBSP. (still 18.8 g) 1490 mg (62%). So, Blis is saltier!

Meanwhile, thanks everybody, I'll try the caesar salad to start. So far I tried to sub it to regular fish sauce in Momofuku roasted brussel sprouts but I should have used a very small amout of fish sauce because it was too salty and smoky for me. If anybody starts playing around with it, I'll keep my ears open!

I have a bottle of Blis fish sauce. It tastes so different than the regular red boat fish sauce, very smoky. I need some brainstroming! Lately I don't feel very creative and I'm always short of time, so, I'd like to use it in a simple way and so to take advantage of it. Thanks!

Hi Bojana, glad I triggered you to try out the recipe. Just out of curiosity, which blender did you use? The thickness, of thick custard you are referring to, was after you emulsified with butter? Given how thick my pudding became, after I put it back on the stove, brought me to the conclusion that it was not hot enough to fully gelatinize the starch. In the case of the "perfect pastry cream" it is suggested a minimum of 1 liter to carry enough heat...but tapioca starch should gelatinize at lower temperature. So, I'm missing something here. I made sure my milk was at a rolling boil, coming to the top of my pot, almost spilling.

Hi. I have a question. Searching for pork in caramel sauce, I found two ways of doing it: browing the meat and adding the caramel sauce, plus fish sauce, like in this recipe, or I see no browining, no caramel and using coconut water, plus fish sauce, and there caramelization comes from boiling down the coconut water, like here . So, I'm curious to find out more. Anybody?

I'm back. I tried first the chocolate pudding. I used an immersion blender this time. I whisked the yolks and the tapioca starch and poured in a 2 liter Bormioli jar, then I added the boiling liquid mixing with my immersion blender. I got the consistency of a creme anglaise not of a thick mayo. But I thought it is would work out and I found it much creamier than my first attempt. Then I tried the burnt sugar pudding. It has only a little less tapioca starch compared to the chocolate pudding. I did measure first in volume and then in weight. On my scale it was actually 34 g not 27 g as per recipe. The liquid was also very hot. This time, don't know why didn't thicken. So, to avoid waiste, I tossed everything in a pot, brought to a boil (at that point got really thick and then, off the stove, I emulsified the butter. This is the pudding still warm I think I did this more of experimenting since I didn't like the flavor of both puddings much. If the heat is not enough and the result is a partial swelling of the starch I don't think it's a great outcome, since I don't like the idea of eating uncooked starch. In cooking for geeks it is stated that cornstarch gelatinize at 100 C and tapioca starch at 85 C. In the link for the perfect pastry cream, here, Migoya says that corn starch coagulates at 85 C. And tapioca, then. I thought this is a simple straight forward recipe...but not a winner recipe for me.

Thanks for your help, I'll definitely give it another try.

Yes, I used the book. I measured the tapioca by volume and than weight. It was 20 g for half a recipe for the chocolate pudding. But as you said there were lumps of tapioca egg at the bottom of the blender. I didn't use a powerful blender, for sure. Yes, I guessed the chocolate pudding would thicken anyway...the liquids were very hot, so I guess it's either halving the recipe the problem or my blender. Do you think an immersion blender would work? Maybe a could try with the chocolate pudding, since it's going to thicken anyway.

Hi. I made the two pudding recipes from Ideas in Food. The method is similar for both recipes. Blend some yolks and tapioca starch, warm up liquids with sugar, pour in the blender while it's running, increasing the spead. According to the recipe it should get like a thick mayonnaise at this point (not in my case). Then add chocolate for the chocolate pudding and butter for the burnt sugar pudding to emulsify. Well, they didn't thicken. The only thing I did different was cutting the recipes in half. For the chocolate pudding refrigeration helped and thickened there but the burnt sugar one was just liquid. Any ideas? Does the type of blender make a difference? This is the chocolate pudding after the rest in the refrigerator. Here a link to the recipe. Thanks for any input.

Yes! Thank you

I was thinking yesterday night about some cooked apples I read about on egullet, long time ago, maybe 4-5 years ago, maybe more. And, of course, you know what happens when you get stuck on a thought. What I remember is that the apples were finely sliced or spiralized and layered with sugar in a souffle mold, cooked for long time don't remember if in a bainmarie. A sort of Pomme Anna with apples. And I think was a woman chef recipe. Anybody remembers something like this?

That's very helpful! Hopefully, I'll manage to post some for our meals in the dinner thread Thank you

Yes, totally agree! Yesterday I made some chard/duck gozleme for my son (also tonight) And we had a pave of oxtail with some caramelized endives and polenta taragna sticks. It's not Heston's recipe and I have a sense that his recipe would be better. I think I didn't balance right the wine/stock, too acidic and my husband didn't like it. Tonight we had sweetbreads...Sweeeeeet!

I need suggestions. We are going to visit my in-laws in the States for Christmas (they live in Staten Island) and I'm going to be doing most of the cooking. My mother-in-law's kitchen is a very basic chinese kitchen: no oven, no fancy equipment, no chefs knifes (just a Chinese cleaver). They eat just Chinese food. My children are used to mediterranean food, I do cook some chinese but it's always tweaked to meet their taste: duck confit potstickers as example. My parents in law are used to my cooking and they happily try anything I make but I alway make stuff that is going to be liked by everybody: risotto keeps my father in law craving for rice at bay. I've been out of the States for some years now so, I'm sure, I'm not even aware anymore of food products available. I'm a little undecided if I should post this here, in the Consumer forum or in the NY cooking. I do need a little bit of brainstorming. Keep in mind that: - We are going to be eating out sometimes and visiting friends - I'm on holiday and don't want to spend too much time cooking - I've two small children that make everything a little more difficult. My ideas: For lunch some pastas or risottos and a side dish or two we are set. I'm very picky about my peeled tomatoes. Any brand that you find particularly good? Is Fresh Direct stock good? For dinner I'm sure I'd be more than happy to be eating some NY strips and Rib eyes...some crabs and lobsters. But I can already see me struggling for Christmas cooking and shopping. I could do a Capon stock and tortellini/dumpling in stock. What's your favorite brand of wonton skins? A braised duck maybe. Do you have a favourite? Any favourite Trader Joe's product that you suggest? Basically, I need shortcuts because I don't have the time to explore the market, I have a limited kitchen and I'd like to do my shopping wisely.

Hi Patrick, I remember the Hong Kong supermarket! My inlaws live in Staten Island and do most of their Chinese shopping in Brooklyn. We are going to have a car so we can move around easily, although, with two small children and the frenzy of Christmas shopping, I want to make my life easier. Maybe I'll ask also for help in the cooking forum and open another post here to ask for suggestions for intelligent shopping. Thanks!

Is still this the best place to shop for Chinese food? We are going to be in NY for the holidays and I'm going to do most of the cooking. I'm already thinking on where and what to shop...

I never had tamales... Maybe when I come to the States for Christmas. We had rabbit and polenta tonight with brased vegetables (I use the tough leaves of salads)

Duck breast with blueberry sauce on celeriac pure

Ok, I just wrote to the company in Italy to know about the Fresco. I found that the line FREDDY, which is also blast chiller + slow oven, is denitely sold in the US: here. It would be interesting to know how much it costs. Here , it is sold for €3,529.17. Fresco is surely cheaper.

It should cost around 1,300 €. I just found the company has a branch in the US: here but no Fresco on sale yet. Maybe I should email to enquire about it.

Hi. I really would like to purchase the FRESCO machine. It is a blast chiller for home use. But it has more functions: you can thraw food at controlled temperatures, you can use it as proofing chamber, as a slow oven (since it reaches 75C), it has a function to coold beverages... I'm moving back to the US in the next 10 months and I do not think this product is sold in the States. What are the alternatives to something like this at the moment in the US? The slow oven is less interesting to me as I'd like to buy a SVS as soon as I move back but as blast chiller for the home use? Anything comparable? Thanks

Hi guys! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Yesterday night, my husband came home and said. It's Thanksgiving today! Ops. I forgot. We had jamaican oxtail stew.

Pille, your oxtail looks so good! I need to try that Oxtail daube myself. It's a very much appreciated dish also in this house. My favourite so far is the braised oxtail from Fat (Jennifer McLagan). Picture is not the greatest but I truly love this. coda di Francesca Spalluto, su Flickr This is a Oxtail terrine, coming from Anissa Helou Fifth quarter And this, still from the same book: Jamaican oxtail stew. I don't think it's a very traditional recipe thou

Enrique, with a new baby you could make that! You are brave. Congratulations on you newborn! Dcarch, leftover or not your food is always beautiful. Now I need to run and buy tapioca. Yesterday night we had risotto with fresh porcini. And we are still working on our jamon de pata negra.