pastrygirl

If it has solidified in the ISI, try dipping the canister in warm water and shaking to melt the mass. I've found it to be very temperature sensitive.

I'm having a hard time seeing a big need for this. I think most restaurateurs know who their competitors are, and the successful ones don't necessarily care about the details of what the others are doing. I think good managers do find time to check their yelp reviews and address the negative ones. I guess if a business was really struggling and couldn't figure out why, your service might come in handy.

Except for the mango tree. Canadian mangoes?

I wouldn't say those beliefs are all that popular in this particular forum, at least not that I've noticed. Some of us may aspire to eat less meat overall or more sustainable/responsible/organic meat overall, but egulleters are hardly a band of militant vegans. Who and where are these poor lost souls you feel the need to enlighten? Forget veganism? No need, I never considered it Life is too short to eat soy "cheese".

Precisely. Pure chocolate is a system of solids suspended in fat. A little liquid doesn't fit into the equation, so the chocolate seizes. Add enough liquid, and you then have a system of fat and solids suspended in liquid. There is nothing magic about coconut cream to make ganache out of seized chocolate, it's just a matter of enough liquid, any liquid. I think of chocolate chantilly cream as essentially replicating dairy heavy cream. Whipping cream is around 36-40% fat, as is couverture chocolate. If you mix 100g Cacao Barry Fleur de Cao at 41.8% fat with 100 g water, voila, you have the equivalent fat of heavy cream plus some cocoa solids and sugar. It does work in an ISI whip. I have not tried white chocolate, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

The chinese truffles are a different variety. The canned truffles from China labeled 'Product of France' in the video were Tuber indicum, not the Perigord variety Tuber melanosporum. The sorters were able to pick them out, so there must be some obvious difference, at least to the pros.

Exactly what I was thinking. Pinot goes with everything.

One sugar and a splash of milk. Half and half if milk is too hard to come by (i.e if I'm making espresso at work and there is no milk in the bar fridge and I don't feel like going downstairs to the walk-in), but not too much or it will be too rich. Heavy cream? Ugh, way too rich, I don't know how people can drink that!

Poppy is hardly Indian. I've heard there are some good Indian places on the Eastside, but I have no personal experience.

That makes no sense at all. Maybe he meant to say salt is faster because its a smaller molecule? NaCl has gotta be smaller than C12H22O11.

Sometimes. The main difference is that corn syrup has a lot more water. In something like caramels that are cooked to a particular temperature, the water will cook off. In a ganache filling for molded chocolates, the additional water could shorten shelf life and affect texture. I imagine you could reduce corn syrup to commercial glucose syrup consistency, then you would be good to go.

This was being sampled at my local grocery store recently: http://www.dcicheeseco.com/great-midwest/mango-fire-cheddar So very wrong. I scoured the store for a sample of something else to get the taste out of my mouth. <shudder>

It is available on amazon in the US (via other sellers). There is one customer review that gave it one star for being exactly what you are looking for: "All hail the pastry God, but this book will remain unused and the recipes largely unworkable by us mere mortals." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1742665713/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_opt

I never saw galangal or smoked tea in 2 years of living in Bhutan, but then only so much makes it up the hill. Both sound delicious, though! Bhutanese would always put a bay leaf in the chai. Well, some sort of leaf that was elongated and that IIRC we used as bay leaves, but was not an english bay laurel.

I think it could be viable, one of the projects my boss talks about trying to put together is heat & serve meals featuring SV meats. There probably needs to be a bit more education of the general public regarding the safety of sous vide and that it is perfectly OK to crisp the skin on the SV chicken breast before serving (seems like a common misperception is that sous vide meats have no texture and are always served straight from the bag). I think the flavorful marinades and spices would be the greater selling point rather than the cooking method. I doubt many people find themselves craving some variety of SV meat regardless of flavor, so you need to have something that makes it more delicious than they would cook at home, PLUS the tender juiciness of sous vide and convenience of boil in the bag reheating. Local health departments may make it more difficult to start this sort of business, requiring a HACCP plan at least.

I'm of the mind that there is a time and a place for silicone, but not every kitchen tool benefits from being made out of it. I would pass on the baking sheets.

Well it's been a few years, and I doubt I could explain where that great place for bun cha gio was even if I remembered, so I'll just say eat as much as you possibly can, eat street food any time you see it, have pho for breakfast like its meant to be. And the water puppet show in Hanoi in the old quarter near Hoan Kiem lake was really quite charming, as were the lacquer etchings (an art form that seems unique to Vietnam) in the fine art museum in Hanoi. I found the food in Vietnam great across the board. There may have been some mediocre western food in there, but that's what you get for ordering pizza in Asia. (People who say there is no such thing as bad pizza have never been to Asia. ) Some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11037087@N02/sets/72157619833647972/with/3618110120/

That's terrible. But doesn't it make you want to see the recipe?

For this bread she is baking in a pullman pan, which is covered, so I don't think steam would have much effect. http://www.amazon.com/Paderno-World-Cuisine-13-75-Steel/dp/B0026RHW0Q Isn't longer kneading time supposed to give a finer crumb?

Nyesha now has the jacket.

Supposedly the pastry chef this other chef worked with used it. It says to blend the butter in while the custard is still warm, chill one day then freeze in paco jet beakers. You want lower fat ice cream when using the paco jet, because the more fat you have the greater your risk of it getting overspun and buttery from the high speed of the rotating blade. When I make brown butter or butter pecan ice cream I adjust the milk:cream ratio to account for the added fat. I hadn't considered it as a flavor enhancer, never thought of butter flavor as particularly desirable in ice cream. Does butter really make everything better?

I've made ice cream bases with butter before, either intentionally to make brown butter ice cream, or out of desperation when there was no cream to be found. My usual recipe is cream, milk, egg yolks, sugar, salt and flavors. Today our new chef gave me an ice cream recipe from one of the high end restaurants he had worked in in another city. It is for 'neutral ice cream base' and is something like 5 liters milk, 1/2 liter cream, egg yolks, sugar, milk powder, atomized glucose, stabilizer, salt, and 325 g butter mixed in with the immersion blender at the end. This strikes me as odd. Why would you opt to add butter rather than just use a higher proportion of cream? Dairy fat is dairy fat, isn't it, and why add an extra step? I'm not planning to adopt this method, just curious what the reasoning behind it might be.

:laugh:

Good to know, I'll give it a try. I wouldn't be able to use milk chocolate because of a dairy issue. I'll just have to advise her to eat them quickly, and not worry about fat bloom if it does happen. Thanks!

I think it is a little harder to break into a new town, but I don't think Seattle chefs particularly discriminate. If you can get in to stage or work a trail shift, they will judge you on your performance then. It might help to give a little description of the places you've worked on your resume, rather than just your station. Cuisine, seats, average covers, awards, etc. Good luck!