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LSiegel

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Everything posted by LSiegel

  1. haven't posted here in a very long time but just stumbled across this thread and would love to be added to the "maybe" list. a couple of years back i started a small candy company (mostly caramels and brittles) and it would be great to meet some of you and learn some new techniques.
  2. Thanks for the recipe suggestion. It's very different from other recipes I've seen - most seem to use either gelatin or cornstarch, but this one uses both. I'll try it out in the next few days and let you know how it comes out. A related question - in London last year I had a honey flavored Turkish Delight, and I'm wondering how to duplicate that flavor. I'd be hesitant to just substitute honey for sugar, given honey's hygroscopic nature that might lead to an even wetter result. Any ideas?
  3. I've made 3 or 4 attempts at making Turkish Delight (based on a recipe using the cooked corn starch/cream of tartar method, not gelatin), but it never sets up properly - it's always too wet, and liquifies the corn starch/powdered sugar when I coat it. Based on comments I've seen in other threads, I've tried cooking it longer (up to an hour and a half, rather than the hour I've seen in most recipes) and letting it set up for longer (up to 2 days) before coating it with powdered sugar, with no success. Can anyone recommend a recipe that has worked well for them, or make any suggestions on what I can do to fix this problem? Thanks!
  4. Someone upthread mentioned Mantra in Boston. The bathrooms (and the men's room in particular) created such a stir when that restaurant was opened that there were entire newspaper articles written about them (and the same issue of not being able to distinguish the urinals from the sinks was mentioned). What I found really disconcerting was that the doors to the stalls were made of one-way glass. You couldn't see in from the outside, but once you were in the stall you could see everyting else going on in the bathroom. Really weird sensation - you knew nobody could see you but still felt like you were on display.
  5. just thought i'd say thanks to all for the ideas. the soup i made was a big hit at seder. not exactly what i was aiming for, but close enough and i can probably make a few minor adjustments to get it just right. for those who asked, i picked bits from all of your ideas to come up with the soup. it was based on the basic chicken stock recipe from the eGCI stock making class, with parsnips substituted for some of the carrots, and the addition of some flat leaf parsley, some dill and a few peppercorns. i also left the skins on the onions as suggested to add color. i cooked everything for a good 6-7 hours, strained out the solids, refrigerated over night and skimmed off the fat (used later in the matzoh balls). separately, i sliced up a couple of fresh carrots and cooked them in a small amount of the chicken soup until just barely tender. at seder, i warmed the soup up and, shortly before serving, added the matzoh balls and the carrots. soup was a beautiful golden color with a nice rich mouth feel. only real change i would make would be to reduce the ratio of vegetables to chicken, to let the chicken flavor shine through a bit more. otherwise, a really great pot of soup. thanks again.
  6. Thanks for all of the suggestions. In response to Fat Guy's query upthread on pinpointing what I mean when I say my soup "lacks that certain flavor component", what I have in mind are the soups made by my grandmothers Unfortunately, one has now passed away and one is in poor health and is no longer able to cook, so I can't go back to them for tips. Also, I've tried the soup at some of the classic Jewish delis, like 2nd Avenue, and while they're tasty they seem too fatty and salty to me. What some of you have suggested, a certain richness and fullness of flavor - very strong and "chickeny" if you will - is what I'm looking for, so I don't think it's so much about the herbs that are added (although the ideas are appreciated, and I'll probably try adding some dill). I'm sure there was a fair amount of salt in the soups my grandmothers made, but there was definitely more to the flavor. Maybe what Jason Perlow suggested, making a really good stock with lots of gelatin in it to get that very satisfying mouth feel.
  7. I've been assigned the task of making the matzoh ball soup for this year's seder. I've got the matzoh balls down, but have never truly mastered the soup part. It always seems to be a bit bland, and lacks that certain flavor component that I associate with a good bowl of matzoh ball soup. Anyone got a great, tried and true recipe? Or suggestions for making a good, classic Jewish chicken soup (the kind Bubbe used to make)? I did a quick search and didn't find any prior topics on this, but if this has already been done, please lead me in the right direction.
  8. I am so relieved to see this new thread. I’m a relatively new member (and only just upgraded my membership yesterday), but the incivility of the earlier thread, and of a few other recent threads, really had me questioning why I was bothering. The responses here have reassured me (somewhat). I love all manner of fine cooking and fine dining, and spend an inordinate amount of time thinking, planning, purchasing, and preparing for meals. I love to play with new ingredients and experiment with new techniques. But, as noted above, real life intervenes. When I roll in the door after a 12-14 hour day at the office, despite my love of cooking, sometimes I just need to become one with the couch and not spend an hour (or even a half hour) at the stove, and short-cuts like frozen veggies are all I can muster at the time. But truth be told, there are number of out-of-the-package or “semi-homemade” items that I really enjoy, too. Sometimes it’s a childhood association, or sometimes it’s just stuff that I think is fun to eat. So shoot me. Doesn’t mean I’d pass up a meal at a top restaurant for that stuff, but I don’t think it has to be an either-or proposition.
  9. I was a vegetarian throughout most of my twenties, for two primary reasons. First, health. I’ve always had stomach problems and, while in college, I heard that meat (red meat in particular) can be very irritating to the stomach. I removed meat from my diet and found an immediate improvement in my stomach. Also, contrary to the whole anti-carb diet thing, I lost a pretty dramatic amount of weight once I eliminated meat from my diet. Second reason was environmental. The resources expended and wastes produced in meat production grossly exceed those of vegetable protein sources. A read through “Fast Food Nation” illustrates this (and will eliminate any craving for meat products pretty quickly). I was never a rigid vegetarian (with occational meat indulgences on special occasions or when I had a major craving), but fell off the wagon when I married a die-hard meat eater. My diet is still primarily vegetarian, but I’ll eat some fish or seafood, or even indulge in an occasional steak.
  10. About six months back I found a new variation on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups– a king sized version of the standard peanut butter cup. Unlike the usual “king size” packaging commonly seen in stores (which just increases the number of peanut butter cups in the package), this one contained two king sized peanut butter cups, about double the thickness of the standard cups. As discussed elsewhere above, the change in the peanut butter/chocolate ratio can make a big difference, and these were excellent. Haven’t seen them anywhere since. Has anyone else seen them? Any idea if they’re still making them and, if so, where to find them?
  11. My sister lives just a bit north of Norwich, VT (and we've taken several classes at the KA Baking & Education Center). Nearby quality restuarants include: The Norwich Inn (just up the road from KA in the Norwich town center, next to Dan & Whits, the epitome of the classic New England country store worth checking out on its own). Nice menu and they brew their own beer. See www.norwichinn.com The fairly new Canoe Club on the main drag in Hanover, NH is pretty nice. And a real treat is the Stone Soup Restaurant in Strafford, VT (phone 802-765-4301).
  12. Ginza in Chinatown is my favorite Sushi in Boston, but I just went to Sakura Bana for the first time for lunch yesterday and it was excellent.
  13. My worst home cooked meals, unfortunately, have been at the hands of my mother and her mother. A couple of examples: Grandma – spaghetti cooked in a pressure cooker!!! Not the sauce, but the pasta itself. (She couldn’t understand why kids would turn down spaghetti). Mom – went through an adventurous period in the 80s, and tried a recipe of chicken breasts cooked in a sauce made primarily of canned peaches and the accompanying syrup. Nauseatingly sweet, with rubbery, flaccid skin. Since we all balked at it the first night, and she had lots of leftovers, the next night she WASHED OFF the peach sauce, added some kind of Italian seasoning and reheated it. Skin still rubbery, with vestige of peach flavor combined with incongruous Italian flavors. Utterly gag inducing.
  14. FWED, what was the source that you found for small quantities of the apple pectin? So far, I've found a decent source for the fruit puree, but not the pectin. I also would be interested in info on refractometers, in case I decide to go that route. Don't know much about them - a quick on-line surf revealed a range of options, most at fairly steep prices. And thanks for the suggestions on how to fix bad batches if I don't get one.
  15. Thanks for the suggestions. I found a source for the Boiron fruit purees on-line, but no information on recipes. Any suggestions for where I could find the recipes? Thanks.
  16. The thread on kosher gelatin reminded me of a question I have - I've been trying my hand at fruit gels, unsuccessfully. The recipes I've tried have been based on gelatin as a gelling agent, and I've ended up either with inedible rubber balls, or gels that never properly set up. I assume there is an issue with the ratio of gelatin to liquid in these recipes, but I'm not sure what the correct ratio would be. Also, on the back page of a recent issue of Fine Cooking, they showed Thomas Haas making his pate de fruit, and noted that he uses apple pectin as his gelling agent. I've not been able to find any recipes based on fruit pectin, but like the idea. Does anyone have a recipe based on fruit pectin? Or a reliable recipe based on gelatin? Or general thoughts on the relative benefits of using pectin, gelatin, agar agar or any other gelling agent for making fruit gels?
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