Kerry Beal

I made half a batch of Diana Kennedy's flan, split into two bowls. The round was steamed in the cuisinart at 200F for 40 minutes, the oval 190 for 40 minutes. A little unmolding issue. But no bubbles and silky smooth. More bubbles than I'd like but still a very satisfactory custard.

Back from the ER in time for dinner -

The ER has required my attention only twice so far today (but wait until dinner time) - so I've been putting together some chartreuse knock offs. They will require some attention when I return home - but they can start soaking today.

If he had a Cuisinart steam oven he could reheat that fried chicken good as new!

Not been found on Google by myself either. Recipe given to me by mother of a friend here on the island. She has been running a delightful bed and breakfast and feeding people with her french treats. 60 grams cornstarch100 grams all purpose flour100 grams sugar (less)75 grams melted butter5 tablespoons milk, 75 grams2 eggs1 tablespoon baking powdervanilla4 cut up apples or pears mix all then stir in butter. Bake 375º for 40 minutes. She bakes in a charlotte pan.

Bourrote aux Pomme to be taken in to work when the call comes.

Interesting you should ask. I'm not actually a big apple eater - I'm birch tree pollen allergic - which means that certain raw foods don't sit well. Apples being one of them. Not a big apple pie eater either. I enjoy it when I eat it - but don't go out of my way to do so. But right now I have a source of fruit that is costing me nothing, out of which I can make treats to take to work and provide a source of fermentable liquid from which I can make hooch. Merely being practical! I do have fond memories of sweet cider that we purchased from Waldale Orchard that sat where a bunch of stores and a movie theatre sit now - the first glass of that in the season epitomized fall. I know I hated it when someone handed out apples on Halloween - felt like I was getting gypped.

The redder of the apples? I picked these from 4 trees this evening. The ones up front in the picture had a very white flesh with a rose tinge under the peel. The ones on the far right were also white fleshed but no rose tinge.

So, both of us looking at things we might want to bake - realized we don't have any apples in the house (with the exception of one Fuji left over from the Ivan Ramen ramen. So hiked out before it got dark and picked a few.

Excellent idea!

Not sure - but they did seem to go down rather than out. The boards were pretty close to the edge - in one picture you can see him using the claw side of the hammer to keep the board inside the staves.

Autumn Snap - cider, bourbon, ginger brandy (or canton and brandy in this case), muddled candied ginger and angostura bitters.

Several weeks I suspect before it ferments dry. Then to decide if it should be drunk as hard cider or processed further.

They are pretty dry. I suppose you could add some sugar and water and use them to make something like grappa - but otherwise I'm not sure. Oops - realize I forgot to answer the question about turning the press. Easy at first - harder later - for two people much easier than for one alone. Got a workout - will know I have biceps tomorrow.

We had a lovely day for cider making - we were giving thanks for the sun and relative warmth compared to yesterday. Our hosts live just a bit down island from us - they have a hobby farm with goats, ducks, chickens and a lovely Weimaraner. This is the pumpkin he grew in his manure pile. This is the first time that he had used the new big press since he had purchased it. You can see the older smaller press off to the left on the next picture. We didn't use that one at all. We had enough apples to fill the big one twice - and filled a 19 litre carboy of his and one 17 litre and two 10 litre bottles that I had brought. He's the original McGiver - he built this apple crusher out of a chunk of maple that he rounded in the lathe then screwed some stainless screws into. Made short work of the apples - requiring unjamming about 3 times during the whole operation. Safety glasses were required wear - as apples and bits want to return to the light. The liquid gold started to drip out very quickly after pouring the first pot of ground apples in. So we'd put in a bunch of apples bits, press them down by hand, put some cherry boards on top with grooves in them to bring the flow of juice out to the sides where it can drip into the trough below and flow into the spout. More boards, more layers. Then you start adding the parts of the screw assembly. To every thing, turn, turn, turn... Then you are left with this great big cake of pressed apple. It got taken off to the goat pen - hopefully there won't be colicy goats tonight. So only on Manitoulin can you invite yourself to a stranger's house to make use of their apple press, be provided with more apples than you brought and be fed lunch! Chanterelle soup no less, made from chanterelles picked by our host. Apparently he has a nose - he can tell when he is approaching them in the woods by the apricot smell they give off. Our host and another 'core' member (by the name of Applebaum) started an apple pie competition that ran for 25 years. Can't really read the T-shirt but it's from one of the Pomological competitions. Our very delicious chanterelle soup. The haul - SG was 1.044. About 1 litre made it into the fridge. The remainder is now yeasted and ready to ferment.

Both for me - sour cream for Anna.

Pretty sure it's in there! Not absolutely certain about the black salt though.

No Indian up here unless you include the Indian Tacos - that would be Ojibway. The local Chinese food joint is suspected of being a front for something illegal I seem to recall. I've never seen anyone coming or going from there. One of the first years I was here I was on an Indian food kick - brought my masala dabba, that hubby had purchased for me for Christmas from Lee Valley, with me and made all kinds of Indian food. Think if I look in the drawer I could probably find all the printed out recipes. Right now in the cupboard we have pretty much all the spices we could need to make just about anything.

Just an empty lined notebook - my favourite of the 3 I bought was the 'Decomposition' notebook. The one with the Eiffel tower on it will probably be my notebook for a trip to France.

Neutral oils would be something like sunflower, grape seed etc - that have little flavour of their own to contribute. Mette's suggestion of adding some spray dried malt as well to boost the flavour would help - when I'm going for a fruit flavoured ganache I like to add other sources of flavour as well to boost (so puree, freeze dried fruit powder and compound flavouring). So you could start with a water ganache using beer as above, add the spray dried malt and use malt syrup in place of the glucose in the piece.

I'd start with a basic cream ganache - replace the cream with 65% of the volume beer and 35% neutral oil. So if your ganache contained 125 grams of cream - replace with 125x0.65=81 grams beer and 44 grams of oil.

I did the debate about a rice cooker for dad - there are lovely little ones available - but realized if he was no longer cooking other stuff for himself - he was unlikely to do the rice either.

And now we are at home enjoying a Brother's Perryman with our new bottle of St Germain - in our new glasses.

Nope - doesn't fall apart at all. You can squish it into little balls and dip it in the peanut sauce.

Tri2cook - you will be pleased to know that the little bottles of Carpano antica appear to be back in the LCBO!