RETREVR

I had a big electric dough roller that we used for pizza and pasta. It rocked. We used to feed the pasta back into the rollers as it came out the bottom. We could roll a 50ft noodle. The rollers were about 2ft wide. The same kitchen had a row of bassic prep tables but with butcher block tops on them. Really a standard bakers table but the whole kitchen was filled with them. I am assuming all the normal stuff like convection ovens, saute station, fryer, salamander, and flat top(I have never used one of those euro flat tops with the rings...are they available here?) One thing I found handy on the line was a small steamer cabinet. A stone pizza oven is handy. A wok station would be cool. The saute cook would always be using it for things he forgot to put on. A big emmersion blender of course. I like cheap thin steel saute pans, but a nice set of copper/stainless sauce pans would be nice. If at all possible it is nice to have some source of sunlight in the kitchen. An ice carving facility would be neato. A chefs locker room with shower facilities....and shoe cleaning service. You should go to here: http://www.epicurious.com/features/chefs/keller and take a tour of the per se kitchen When it gets right down to it, a kitchen with quality basic equiptment can put out an unbelievable range of food. This guy cakewalk is something else. By all means read the thread. Even better, contribute to the thread. I think tony was trying to differentiate betwene sugestions for a pro kitchen as opposed to a home kitchen. There are a lot of pros on here that contribute a ton of knowledge to the forums. The pros also learn from the home cooks. To come on this thread and raise hell is petty.

Part of my attraction to Iron Chef is to come up with a menu that I would create if I were in the battle. I usually do this in the first few minutes of the show. Sometimes thought s linger for a few days, or they appear in actual menu items. For instance in the IC America premier they had bison. I was thinking of a Bison tournedos atop green chile cornbread croutons, with a maple bourbon glace. Perhaps an oven made pemmican. Five spice bbq ribs with a pomegranit sauce. Maybe a bison philli cheese steak for Morimoto. Bison tatsuda tossed with peppers and onions. A pepper crusted internally larded loin sliced very thin plated with alternating slices of the loin and very thin sliced smoked salmon. I don't know about the sauce. What would you cook?

This is good: Bleu cheese, carmelized onions(confit if you insist), and pear. Shaved Meatballs, along with other toppings is good(peperoncini matches well). Chopped meatballs are good also, but different than the shaved. Smoked duck is good. My favorite: Luigis pizza with their house made sausage and pepperoni. Just cannot be beat.

I have never read her books or watched her shows. Sure I have caught a few moments over the years, but I am too young to have seen most of her work. However, you say Julia(as you did in the title of your topic) and I know whom you are talking about. She is an icon. It is easy now to say that what she did was not deserving of a nobel prize. You have to put it in context. For half a century she turned the mainstream on to decent food, and she made it look easy. Go look at a used bookstore. You see all the garbage that has been published over the last fifty years. Her books are still relavent even though they are dated. I don't use Escoffier as a cookbook, nor would I use Julias books. She was no Escoffier, but she was a good ambasador for french food.

I just rolled out some fettuccini and tossed it with shitakes and brown butter. Yesterday I roasted a case of red peppers for soup. Some of the peppers were a lttle dry around the edges, so I would pop them in my mouth if I couldn't peel them. The original fruit roll up. The soup wasn't bad either. The day before, I had some roast tenderloin left over from a party for an admiral. I made a phili cheese steak that kicked butt.

My mother will be visiting a freind in Vegas in the coming days. I mentioned this to her and she flipped. You might need to call security.

By the way... A few small diced red peppers (bell) can add a sweet bite now and then. In my book it goes well with the tartness of the wine and lemon.

A red lobster is actually every color but red. When we see red, we are actually seeing the red wavelengths of light reflecting off the shell of the lobster. The red lobster is in fact, yellow and blue.

In application it does...depending on the cut. Having a nice crust can be to iceing on the cake of a good braise. Especially if the cut has a fat cap on it.

Sounds more like lyonaise gratin

Shal- I always end up on the same threads as you. We must have common interests. You are part right and part wrong. What do you mean by "suspend". When I braise I add liquid 3/4 of the way up the side of the meat. If you are covering it, then you are stewing more so than braising. If you mean "suspend" as in to keep at a temperature appropriate to medium rare, then that is not really true. Braises may be done a moderate temperature. However, even in a 200'f oven, your cooking time will bring the cut well above a temperature consistent with medium rare. You are on the right track about breaking down the collagen though. Last week, I had a gig coming up at a barrel race. I had a bunch of eye of round in the freezer with no real use for it. I decided to make BBQ sandwiches with it, knowing that I had a battle on my hands with this cut. The cut really doesn't have enough fat and connective tissue on it to compete with other more appropriate cuts. I cooked it regardless. I actually roasted it, sliced it, and then simmered it in sauce for ....oh....about a day and a half. If eventually broke down and was ok. I don't think it is true that the meat juices are staying in the meat in a braise. They are cooking out, mingling with the braising liquid and then being sucked back into the cut...along with all the flavor of the braising liquid. I need to go back a read some stuff on real BBQ. Those guy are able to breakdown a brisket using dry low heat.

I use a little bit of slightly thickenedd stock for mine, which I already have on hand. In your case you could take the shrimp shells and make a stock. Tighten it up just a tad with cornstarch. Anyway...here we go. Hot pan...olive oil add shrimp toss add a heap of garlic toss add sliced leaks toss salt pepper red pepper toss degalze..white wine squeeze half a lemon over it add stock depending on thickness 1. Add a heap off butter swirl, parsley, plate. or 2. Spoon the shrimp onto pasta. return the pan to heat to reduce a little. butter, swirl, parsley plate. This will give you a nice tangy emulsified sauce.

Keep it simple people. Chemestry is fun to know, but it isn't that difficult. Chemistry aside... It depends what you are trying to do. I personally will always add the wine first to deglaze and burn off some alcohol. This initial flash will round out the wine a bit. At this point you have a decision to make as to what you want to do with the flavor. It also depends on the stock you are using. If I am making a rich vin rouge pan sauce, I will deglaze and let the wine reduce quite a bit before adding stock, and then reduce again. If I am making lighter jus for a roast, I deglaze with wine, let reduce just slightly, add stock and reduce slightly. All the same ingredients, just different sauces. Not realy though. I guess it comes down to this. Do you want to reduce your stock with wine... OR Do you want to reduce your stock with reduced wine. It is really like making a decision betwene fresh herbs or dried herbs. Take a sip of wine, and take a sip of reduced wine, and make a decision as to which one would better flavor your stock. By adding the wine and stock at the same time, you are then reducing them both together at the same rate. It would seem odd to me that your stock needs exactly the same amount of reduction as any given bottle of wine.....every time. Be carefull...many wines will become bitter when over-reduced.

If I can do something to accomodate a customer I will. I am not in a traditional restaurant now so it is different. Don't forget the role of the waitstaff. If a customer orders a well buffalo steak, a great waiter would be able to suggest that that cut is not suitable well done and that they may consider a different cut. They have been warned and if they still choose the well buffalo it is their fault. If this is not handled correctly the customer get a bad meal and thinks the kitchen sucks. Seen it. The waitstaff has to guide diners and keep some control over the table. I have seen brats act up just to make a scene..."what do you mean I cant get a pizza with no flour." I have had customers engineer menus just to complain in the end. I have had customers do the same and become your best patrons. If I know a waiter is good, I will be more likely to accomodate them. If I know a waiter is just being jumped through hoops, I will limit my accomodations. I had a waitress come unbolted on me with all sorts of stupid menu requests and complaints from a table one night. It was starting to effect the flow of the whole kitchen. Turns out it was prom night and these kids were just having a great time running this waitress in circles. She should have taken control from the first minute. Instead she almost blew up the entire kitchen. A friend of ours has a wife that is a bitch. We went out and they had linguini vongole on the menu. She ordered the vongole substitute spaghetti for the linguini.This was not a pasta joint so they did not have spag cooked. The waiter should have went into the kitchen, came back and told us that they were all out of spag. Instead the request was filled but the table had to sit for 45 minutes while they cooked spag. At times a waiter would come back with additional vegetarian requirements and requests. If it was not busy, I would rattle off a special menu of five items I could prepare (the chef was a vegitarian so we always had engredients to work with). If it was busy, I was not about to compramise the service of twenty other tables just to accomodate one diner. In this case I would offer a limited choice of what I could do for them. These customers were likely to become patrons....the kind of patrons that come in and tell you to make whatever you want for them. I am doing catering and banquets currently. This brings up a whole different situation. You may have a client that wants to serve shit on a shingle. The guests think you are a joke because the food is innapropriate. Sometimes you have to say no to requests that do not suit your cuisine. Or get creative and offer canape de poopoo to make everyone happy.

From my experience, a chicken stock will be stronger and can easily become the main flavor component in a dish, compared to veal stock...let alone white veal stock. I don't make white veal stock. I don't have a need for it. The beauty of a brown veal stock is that it is subtle enough to be used in a great many ways. It is not untill you greatly reduce veal stock that you get the great flavor out of it. A brown beef stock will have more flavor in its un-reduced form, but will not develop with reduction like veal will. Making a quality veal stock in 40 minutes is not possible. It is possible to make a chicken stock quickly for a soup. My thought would be that you are wasting 45 minutes of your life by using unbrowned vealbones to make a stock in that amount of time. Just make a vegetable stock if that is what you like (as insipid as that may be). I don't see a lot of recipes calling for white veal stock (probably because I don't use a lot of recipes). Skimming is how you get the fat and impurities out. You could brown your chicken bones for kicks. What type of stews are you making? Using chicken stock in a beef stew is not a good idea. Have you considered making a brown beef stock for your soups and stews? Have you read the course here on egullet about stocks?

A cut that we bring in that I have never seen in the market is a shoulder tender. I had never used the cut in the past so I am not sure exactly what it is....Maybe someone else can comment on that. Anyway, it is about the size of a pork tenderloin and is lean. I trim the silverskin, roast them and use them for little cocktail sandwiches. It is like a poor-mans tenterloin. I would not use them for an upscale entre, but they are very tender roasted mid rare. I make the leftovers into philly cheese steaks for myself...killer good.

A local bookstore is putting in a coffee bar and blowing out most of the their books for $2. I added about 6. The French Laundry is still $25 so I will wait ans see if it drops.

MMMMMMMM....frozen spinach. I found it funny that Ina's Christmas dinner was a dummed down replica of the Christmas dinner that Emeril did the year before. I guess we know what she watches on TV.

Here is another idea I have not tried but just thought of. Boil potatoes and pass them through a food mill. Blend them with milk and roasted garlic to make a sauce(a sauce...not mashed potatoes). May use a little egg liason. Use this sauce to layer what you want. Hell, I am thinking salmon, leeks, and fennel. Top with crumbs or cheese. No need for a bunch of cream. I have been on a kick of using purees (potato being one of the most versatile) as thickeners and binding agents. I might just be losing my mind.

By the way, slices of left-over honey baked ham in a pototo gratin goes a long way to making it a meal.

Here it is: http://trans.voila.fr/ano?anolg=65544&anou...com/sabayon.htm Bon Jovi

I have made good gratins with raw potatoes, cream, garlic, and cheese. I have always found that my cooking times were longer than an hour. If you cook at too high of a temp you will get a broken sauce. The cruset is a good idea because the material helps keep a constant temp. I took another road on my last gratin. The last gratin I made was good. I sliced potatoes and cooked them in just enough milk to cover. I then took the milk and made a bechamel and enriched it with a little cream before turning it in to a mornay of sorts with gruyer. I then used this to layer the potato. I didn't take any chances and baked it in a bane marie. It came out nice and creamy. Don't limit yourself to potato. Try sweet potato. How about butternut squash gratin with coconut curry....never made it just thought of it...I bet it would be good. Make a liason with egg and coconut milk. I just saw a dish that was a sabayon poured over a bowl of berries and gratinade(sp). It looked killer. I wish I could find the link. I will keep looking.

Use a knife A quick duxell can be made and is very tasty. The addition of port is a departure from regular duxell as is crimini. You can use what you like...white wine gives acidity without all the sugar. Duxell is a good way to use your stems if you are making a bunch of stuffed mushrooms(if the stems are not too woody). It can also be the starting point for your stuffing for said mushrooms. You can make it wetter/drier, chunkier/smoother, depending on application. For a stuffing for chicken roulade I make mine a little chunkier drier. For a black porter sauce I use portabellos and make it finer and wetter. For a crustini I use varieties and make it chunky and add leeks a gruyier. Looks pretty good. Would make a good vegitarian bisquits and gravy. Damm....I better not see that showing up on menus.

As someone who has fluted several hundred mushrooms, I can tell you, that you will handle the mushrooms correctly, this usually involves blanching them shortly afterwards in "un blanc" (acidulated broth). We then had to sear them golden brown. The closest comparison I could make was to when you lightly brulee meringue. It seems to highlight the curves you put in, not hide them. ← True. It was my avoidance reflex kicking in there. Nothing looks better than one done well and nothing looks worse than one done poorly.

Even as a garnish it doesn't make much sense because they will discolor(on a buffet) and look less attractive than a naturaly fresh mushroom.