pastrygirl

Alcohol evaporates at 170f (ish, I don't recall exactly but it is well below the boiling point of water) so you might get some flavor but not the booziness. For storage, airtight is key. You may wish to individually wrap the candies in waked paper or cellophane.

Check out Francisco Migoya's books, he's a modern master.

Wild guess, I admit. 11.67 # whole, if you get at least 60% yield there would be 6 or 7 pounds of meat on that goose. It wouldn't be gluttonous feast proportions, but even at 1/3# per serving you should be able to serve a fairly large party. Is there so much fat the yield of meat is far lower? How many servings do you get from a 12# bird?

I use a food processor to mix natural peanut butter before using it. I can't imagine trying to deal with peanut butter in a blender. I also make hazelnut paste, cheesecake, graham cracker crusts and cookie butter in the FP. It is the best tool for some things, and not that hard to clean.

Yes, $10/# isn't that crazy for premium ingredients, even here in Seattle wild salmon and halibut can go over $30/#. Also many cheeses and wild mushrooms - the goose just seems like a lot because it is a relatively large animal. And the bones decrease the yield, but if you were having a dinner party for 15-20, could save the rendered fat and use the bones for stock, it might not seem overly dear.

I feel ya. I have a 7 cup Cuisinart and its really tiny, so when I use the restaurant's robot coupe it is like a double-batch dream world. I too look for excuses to justify buying my own $1k+ robot coupe. But the voices of reason here are probably right. A $200 larger processor will most likely suffice, and now you've freed up $800 for other new toys!

Eggs turned out pretty nice.

Retail or wholesale? Fruit puree prices depend on the flavor and as I'm sure you know couverture prices vary widely per the brand and formulation. My main wholesale suppliers in Seattle are Merlino Foods and the Peterson Co, if you look through their catalogs and select some items for which you would like prices, you may be able to call or email and get that info. Otherwise, I pay around $75 for a 3kg bag of Valrhona, and the Felchlin couvertures I use are $6.17/# for Sao Palme 60%, and $10.26/# for Maracaibo Creole 49% from the suppliers mentioned above. I paid $2.35 per pound for unsalted butter yesterday at Cash & Carry, but that was on sale, it is usually closer to $3 and high-fat or specialty (plugra) butter is more.

Puff pastry needs a solid fat so it will roll into thin layers. Also, filo and puff pastry are completely different. If you want to make filo and brush it with oil instead of melted butter before layering that will work fine.

Saturday was good, Sunday was a lot of lookers, just something to do after church I guess. It's the cotton candy and cherry kool-aid pickles that make it clear it's not a strictly curated event!

I'm waiting to depart ABQ, so I thought I'd share a few notes. Sadies on 4th - really loved the spicy salsa and fresh crispy tortilla chips. I had a combo with a tamale and a braised pork rib, the rib was meltingly tender. Good flavors but an old-school gut bomb in terms of all the cheese melted over everything. Monica's el Portal - lunch before going to the museum. Nice fluffy flour tortilla on the burrito, but the carne adovada was rather dry and under-seasoned. Mary & Tito's - another lunch, good beans in the burrito but otherwise not very special. 2000 Vietnam - had a combo bun for dinner with an assortment of really delicious meats. I would have liked more vegetables and herbs but otherwise was happy. Karibu Cafe - weird disconnect with the manager, but really good jerk chicken wings and pretty good chicken curry. Lentils were bland. Artichoke Cafe - finally someplace with a freaking salad on the menu! I know nothing grows in the desert, but still :slight_smile: Ceasar salad was well executed, duck breast on farrotto with orange-cassis coulis was a highlight of the trip. Out of my frozen dessert trio the rosemary brown butter ice cream was my favorite, the red chile caramel ice cream was disappointing, and the passion fruit sorbet was too intense to eat, tasted like the pastry chef had poured a jar of Perfect Puree passion fruit concentrate into the ice cream machine. El modelo - grabbed a few bites on the way out. Smelled amazing, I was wishing I had kept a cooler to pack full of tamales to bring home. Red chile chicken tamale was another highlight, but the carnitas in a brown paper bag were dry and disappointing. I guess carnitas aren't really a NM thing, it's all about the adovada? And the Chocolate and Coffee fest, where I was all weekend - huge event, tons of attendees but sales did not live up to other large chocolate events I've been to. My booth was next to Ohori Coffee, who kept me awake yesterday with their nice strong pour-over. I was kind of surprised that there were so few higher-end chocolatiers (maybe four or five of us?) but I guess it is just a different market from Seattle. I don't know if I'll come out again next year, but it was a good excuse to get out of the rain and have a mini spring break.

Im guessing less than a cup. Two cups heavy cream at 40% fat minus most of the liquid.

I think it should be fine. Creme fraiche can sit out at warm room temp for a couple of days before it goes from tangy to cheesy.

F = (C x 1.8) + 32

Thanks! Duck enchiladas sound great!

Hey Rob, I'm on my way to the chocolate & coffee fest in ABQ, would love any quick recc's for casual to mid-range, lots of chiles and other local specialties. Face-melting a plus, Mexican, New Mexican, whatever, and I've heard there might be some good Vietnamese food to be found (not that I can't get pho in Seattle). I'll have a car. Thanks!

Chris, looking good, happy selling! Can I ask where you got the boxes the eggs are in?

http://www.thecorsonbuilding.com/ The Corson Building in Seattle might be worth a look. I haven't been, and it is more family style than plated but I believe it has done very well.

butter and/or white chocolate

Bunnies! A la Francisco Migoya Both the bunnies above and the bunny pops were a hit last weekend at the Oregon Chocolate Festival in Ashland. I'll be making more!

I don't know a thing about St Louis and have never used such a system but am not opposed to it. I support having service included so you can pay cooks appropriately. A meal like that demands skilled service but is more about the food. There have been several reports of Seattle restaurants opening with or switching to a service charge. I think its a step in the right direction.

My ideal would be about 12 grams but I think a lot of my molds are slightly smaller, maybe 10g. I tend to keep a ruler near me when shopping for molds so I can try to visualize. Many sites do give the cavity dimensions in mm.

Is there no chef or anyone training you? Some chefs have their own definition of 'medium'and ways they like their line to run that we can't necessarily advise on.

Fancy types or at least around here tech money types eat at fancy trucks. The neighborhood where Amazon has offices is flooded with higher end food trucks and their fans at lunchtime. There are a few coffee trucks, though the city is pretty saturated with espresso shops so it would be harder to stand out around here.

I used my two most popular truffles as filling - dark chocolate salted caramel and milk chocolate peanut butter crisp (with feuilletine, actually a gianduja)