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Rhea_S

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Everything posted by Rhea_S

  1. I had arugula with prosciutto, poached eggs and "aioli" made with garlic, almond oil and parsley for dinner tonight and I had some problems with the eggs. The first two I tried to poach were a complete mess. They didn't come together at all and the water became all cloudy and disgusting. I used a 4-qt skinny hard-anodized aluminum pot filled with lots of water. Those two ended up in the trash with the other egg that I broke while taking out of the fridge. For my next batch, I used a 5-qt stainless steel dutch oven with lots of water. These two turned out ok -- pictured below although not too good a pic. My question: Were the differing results due to the type of pot (hard anodized aluminum vs. stainless steel or the width of the pot?
  2. I'm ok with the cheesecake. I only have to buy one more box of cream cheese. I might also go on the hunt for the 4-in springform pans and make mini-cheesecakes. I don't feel like sharing anything I make at work because lunch hours for professional staff has been reduced to a half hour with no other breaks (except for smokers of course). We also have to account for our time to the nearest quarter hour, work a minimum of 37.5 hours per week and get absolutely no compensation for extra time worked. Yeah, I surf the web lots during the day and I have my own, large office rather than a tiny cubicle, but I work very quickly, do amazing things with SQL, and stay late or come in on weekends when I get asked at the end of the day/week for data that's needed by the next business day. I have a fancy title, but I don't get paid much more than the secretaries who still have two 15 minute breaks on top of the half hour lunch. Please excuse the rant, but I needed to blow off steam before my blood pressure goes through the roof and I faint.
  3. Pizza Rustica Ten-Grain Torpedo The Pizza Rustica took longer than the recommended time -- closer to an hour. I don't know if that was because the pasta frolla had been refrigerated and was cold.
  4. Recipes tried so far from RLB's Bread Bible: Ricotta Loaf, Banana Feather Loaf, White Sandwich Bread and Tyrolean 10-Grain Torpedo. The first three are spongy breads with soft crusts. I don't really like those kinds of bread, but I felt like baking and had the ingredients. The white sandwich bread is just as soft as Wonder Bread but with more flavour. The Tyrolean 10-Grain is really delicious - soft, airy, flavourful crumb and a thin crisp crust. I ate half within 5 hours of the bread coming out of the oven. I have a little less than half at home that I may be able to photograph later.
  5. Poached 4 eggs yesterday. I used an 8-qt pot and lots of water. My egss weren't fresh, so one one thousand and so on. I had nice ovoid eggs with just a few straggly bits. Not a single flat one. Hooray! However, I got my poaching and hard-boiling times mixed up. I thought they were looking a bit rubbery, but I was certain that Fat Guy said 9 minutes. I still think it was a success and I now know better. Also, clean-up was a easy. There was no scrubbing involved since no egg bits tuck to the pot.
  6. Congratulations! The chef and his assistant should have immediately told you why they needed that particular microwave. In any case, judging by their smiles in the your photos, no hurt feelings. It must be very gratifying to do so well in your first competition.
  7. All the Pizza Rusticas look great and Seth's looks better than the one in the book due to the use of a tart/quiche pan. I didn't make mine because I bought pancetta instead of prosciutto. I'll make it tonight. I have the pasta frolla ready to go. I vote chocolate because I've been baking bread from RLB's Bread Bible.
  8. You photographed it beautifully. If you hadn't said anything, very few people would have noticed. Definitely a masterpiece. I may need to have some dessert tonight. Edit: I can't delete, but I was trying to edit and it double-posted. Oh well.
  9. You photographed it beautifully. If you hadn't said anything, very few people would have noticed. Definitely a masterpiece. I may need to have some dessert tonight.
  10. Rhea_S

    Best Salmon

    I would agree for the Coho that I've purchased from most stores; however, freshly-caught Coho from the Pacific Northwest is not mushy or fishy. I suppose the ones that go to market aren't processed properly or Coho just doesn't hold up well. The order of preference for my family is Chinook, Sockeye and Coho. My brother is an avid salmon fisherman, so my family in Vancouver never buy salmon anymore. I go shopping in their chest freezer whenever I visit. We get the most excited when he brings home a large white-fleshed chinook during the fall. It seems to taste the best although large sockeyes taste amazing, so maybe larger salmon = better flavour?
  11. I'm enjoying your blog. It has good, peppy energy. (That sounds so new wave!)
  12. They're supposedly aphrodisiacs. I've never eaten the embryo part. I can't even look at that part, but my dad used to give me the bit of remaining yolk and that was pretty good. I don't know my limits. I think I would probably try anything on a dare, even a whole balut as long as my eyes are closed.
  13. Prasantrin: that's a fairly good list for a start Aside from the items the others have added, I recommend round cookie cutter (3 or 4-inch) - for rolled cookies, biscuits, etc. It's not essential, but it's fairly cheap and good to have if you want perfectly round cookies and biscuits.
  14. mdt - your apple tart looks perfect! I'm a go for Pizza Rustica and my new digital camera arrives today. I don't often get star-struck, but I am a bit due to our visit from Dorie Greenspan. She is definitely one of the best cookbook writers for home cooks. (I can't speak for the pros since I'm not one.) Who else can make waffles exciting? And Paris Sweets and the Herme books opened up a whole new world in pastry for me. I don't know when I'll ever get to Paris; until then, I can make pastries that I know will be close to their inspirations.
  15. I'm on the petite side and have small hands, but I have yet to meet a jar that I can't open without any tools. Like a couple of others in this thread, I hold the jar upside down and bang it down on a hard solid surface (usually my linoleum floor, not recommended on tile for obvious reasons). I've never had a jar break or chip. If I had to rely on a man, I would never get anything done ;D
  16. I like both the Tourte Milanese and Pizza Rustica suggestions because I've never tried them and I'm not craving sweets that much these days. However, I have a couple of pregnant friends who would definitely love cake.
  17. Thank you Andy Lynes and Jack Lang for the egg lists, especially the hard-cooked eggs list since I'm not much for omelettes. I find myself eating some variation of the 4-layer hard-cooked egg dish more often because it's the one of the easiest dishes to put together for one person. It's wonderful to see so many options on one page.
  18. It just won't be as flavourful due to the fast rise although it may taste extra yeasty. However, you can punch it down and let it rise more slowly in the fridge if you want.
  19. I'm not too popular with my Atkins co-workers because I just bought Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible and have been baking and bringing bread to work. I was never a big bread eater, but the more I get told to eat less carbs, the more I crave bread. Plus I recently discovered Beurre d'Isigny.
  20. Was your focaccia dough very stiff? I don't remember the BWJ recipe, but most focaccia doughs are fairly wet and aren't too much trouble for a KA mixer.
  21. Springfield, IL - horseshoe: white toast, hamburger patty, french fries, smothered in "cheddar" cheese sauce
  22. I'm really enjoying the wedge of Montagnolo I bought last weekend -- St. Andre with the blue cheese bite, very creamy. I'm not as impressed with the Roaring 40s blue, but I am wondering if the store's stock had gone off. It's a dark orange, crumbly rather than creamy and all you can taste is salt. It's not at all what I expected based on descriptions I've read. (I'm also currently addicted to lemon stilton -- not exactly a blue.)
  23. Mangosteens,lansones/langsat,mangos,pineapple,jackfruit,lychee, longan,cherimoya, pomelo,chico/sapote,properly ripe papaya -- in approximately that order. I eat lots of the first two whenever I'm in Vancouver, even when they're $8/lb.
  24. Thanks for the blog, Pim. It has been very enjoyable and I've also been browsing through "Chez Pim."
  25. Made my apple tart on Sunday and followed the same schedule as Seth. I also didn't find it to be much work. I used my apple peeler with the slicer disabled and hand-sliced the apples. I didn't think to use my mandoline (duh!). I've made the flaky pie crust from BWJ before, but it turned out even better this time around. I think it helped that my kitchen was cold, my butter was just out of the freezer, shortening was briefly in the freezer and the water was icy. I had long streaks of butter when I rolled out the dough. I was a little confused about the ledge directions, so I ignored them and did it my own way. I used a bit of leftover almond cream from the twice-baked brioche then topped with the compote and the sliced apples. It also took much longer to bake than the directions. Mine looks very much like Seth's except the side of my pan is straight and my apples were a bit darker. I found the tart a bit sweet on its own, but it was perfect with some creme fraiche. I'll probably end up throwing out about half because I can only eat one more slice and I was too ill to invite anyone over this week or bring it to work. (No pic this week because I dropped my digital camera and now need to buy a new one.)
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