Kerry Beal

Awoke in Dunnville again this am - after an overnight shift in the ER. Hit the farmer's market on the way out of town. Took a little sample of the freeze dried corn to the vendor I'd purchased it from - she enjoyed it! Cheddarwurst, cantaloupe, peaches and potatoes. Of course more tomatoes, a couple of nice peppers along with a lovely cauliflower and some fresh green beans. Last week heading home I'd seen a sign on the side of the road saying eggs $1 a dozen. Had to stop this week! Apparently they are breeders and can't sell the eggs through the usual channels until the chickens are a certain age. Bonus for me. 5 dozen that I intend to freeze dry. Eggs aren't huge - but the price is right!

Pasta, bruschetta - anywhere a really tasty tomato is required. This batch I freeze dried.

I'm not sure if pectin lowers aW or not. It's a polysaccharide so probably does. I know solutes will - so sugars, salts - but fats don't.

I'd say of the whole ganache. Does your heavy cream list fat %?

My thought too! Cute little Peruvian bowls.

Just for fun - try using just your puree, no cream, same amount of glucose and 1 ounce of neutral oil. I'd make a part batch and see what your texture is like to start.

How much puree?

What Ruth said - you need to come up with a ganache recipe that incorporates the fruit as part of the liquid. Are you using milk dark or white for the ganache - would you be willing to share the recipe that you are using that is giving you trouble and we can help trouble shoot it for you?

2005 for me - I seem to recall it was related to pate de fruit. I lurked for quite some time on the various forums - then one day someone asked something that no one answered to my satisfaction and I HAD to post! I recall that my first posts on the non confectionary/pastry forums were like swimming with sharks - best not to bleed. My skin has thickened considerably since then!

Dehydrated honey does exist - Tate and Lyle, Domino Specialty Ingredients both make it. I've had samples to play with - again hygroscopic but better than liquid honey when added to chocolate.

Also - what is the temperature of your filling when you pour it in?

Yeah - praline almonds - realized after it was too late to edit that I'd put caramelized almonds. These ones were purchased from the bargain bin at my local high end supermarket - guess they brought in too many for the easter season - price was too good to ignore. Sadly the almonds weren't as roasted under the sugar as I would have liked.

Excitement this week - Alleguede went to the Chocolate Academy in Montreal to teach them all about their new EZtemper. He survived the serious grilling by the chefs - and reports are he handled it extremely well!

Taught some panning on the weekend to a friend of Alleguede's. His GF turned out to be a natural - they had spent a bit of time with Rodney once before and she clearly picked up everything she saw. Freeze dried blueberries in white chocolate with vanilla. Peanut butter cereal in milk chocolate. Malt balls. Caramel coated almonds. Malt balls after polishing.

Practicing up some recipes for the Big Green Egg eggfest this weekend - Brazilian Cheese Puffs (Pão de Queijo) - same recipe as Anna's post above from February First batch made just after making the batter. Next batch made a day later with batter that had been in the fridge for 24 hours. They don't seem to have suffered any from their rest in the fridge - so means I can mix up the batch the night before.

Latest batch - Mint that grows in my neighbours garden - the best place to get mint. Tomatoes Provençal Little raspberries Corn kernals - damn they're good!

Is suspect as tomatoes started to be bred to be lower acid that the necessity to add acid occurred. As long as you use older varieties of tomatoes that are high acid you probably don't need the added acid unless for flavour.

Tomato Juice 8 quarts tomatoes, 13 lbs1 head celery leaves and all2 onions½ cup sugar1 tsp kosher saltpepperpaprika2 drops tabasco sauce (I suspect you might want to add a little more than this!) Fill 8 quart pot with washed, chopped tomatoes. Add remaining ingredients and cook until soupy. Process through fine plate on food mill. Heat again until just under boiling, place in quart bottles with 4 tsp lemon juice in each. Process in boiling water bath for 35 minutes. Makes around 7 quarts.

I have an excellent tomato juice recipe if you are interested.

Should do.

Some lines can be made with a drizzle of chocolate - others are made by spraying then wiping off colour with a Q-tip or a clay tool, then backing up with another colour.

Only recipe I have is for a lemon risotto - so mine looks like a risotto!

That's a shame - looks nice though! What bread is that you have toasted - looks like a lovely toast texture?

Worked overnight in Dunnville - hit the farmer's market as I left this morning. Had the tiny raspberries in the freezer heading to be freeze-dried before I remembered to take pictures. The market. Green beans. Peaches. Lovely beefsteaks On their way to being Provencale tomatoes 1 1/2 dozen peaches and cream - 1 already in my gut. Some will be eaten today, others cut off and freeze dried.

Cou-cou. One of my favourite Bajan foods. You could use up those okra in the cornmeal and some of those tomatoes in the butter sauce. I leave out the flying fish. Here is a reasonable recipe to riff off of (off of which to riff?)