John DePaula

I ate at Guu on Thurlow in Vancouver earlier this year and it was fabulous. Lucky, lucky Toronto! Guu Izakaya 398 Church St., Toronto Don't think their Toronto web site is up yet but here's site for Guu Vancouver. Great blog post, by the way.

I've got a skillet full of fingerlings in the oven now - can't wait! P.S. I'm having this with Marcella Hazan's Fricasseed Chicken Abruzzi-Style and some baby lima beans. I die, I faint, I fail. "Let thy love in kisses rain," eh? Not sure it warrents Shelly but on second thought, maybe it did! The potatoes were spectacular and what a great compliment to this dish! Pic doesn't really do it justice but here goes:

I've got a skillet full of fingerlings in the oven now - can't wait! P.S. I'm having this with Marcella Hazan's Fricasseed Chicken Abruzzi-Style and some baby lima beans.

I'm guessing the reduction in non-fat milk solids (lactose, caseins, whey proteins, etc.) is probably the factor in this case but there is also a huge difference in water content. Can't think of any reason why that would be the problem though. I asked the same thing, judiu. But apparently, Tri2Cook has got it right: less lactose in butter. So I guess the moral of the story is: If you have someone in your life who is marginally lactose intolerant, butter might still be ok.

I love bananas foster, though I usually make it with pecans. Do you make your own coconut milk sorbet? When I do, it usually very stiff/icy. Do you add anything (alcohol, glucose, stabilizer) to reduce iciness?

Thanks for the suggestions, All! Yeah, I do lots and lots of sorbets and fruit pies and tarts for this group. The Gingerbread cake sounds good and love the idea of the individual apple Charlottes, Marlene! Chris, I did actually do an Angelfood Cake, by request, recently and it surprised me how much I loved it. You're right, a very good choice! I'm also considering Julia Child's Vanilla Pound Cake from Baking with Julia. Ok, my bad, it has some milk - but only a little...

In a particular circle of close-knit friends, there are lots of allergies. One is allergic to nuts; another, to chocolate; yet another, to dairy. I need to expand my repertoire of desserts so that I'll actually want to eat the dessert I make for a dinner party. Poached pears are nice - very elegant and simple. I recently discovered a recipe for Overnight Apple Cake that really looks good. Given these restrictions, no nuts, dairy (other than butter), no chocolate, do you have any favorite recipes that would fit the bill?

If I'm making greens for vegetarians, I use Morga Vegetable Bouillon Cubes. ETA: Love Kerry's miso idea, too! I want to try that soon.

May need to start frequenting yard sales in Belgium (tongue firmly planted in cheek). Nice trick with the chocolate molds and freezing; however, I still would not be too sanguine about using hot sugar in them because of leaching out bad stuff into your confections.

I was taught by the more efficient David Lebovitz to butter the pan, put in the parchment, then flip over the parchment. Voila, the parchment is already greased. Hey, nice tip!

I agree about that Young's Double Chocolate Stout, andiesenji. It's SO rich and velvety - perfect for a cake like this one. I was introduced to this beer by the owner of Indish, a local restaurant featuring home-style Northern Indian cooking. He is a recent immigrant from Britain and knows his beers. (Food is great, too!) This cake is now on my list.

From HeatherM's post: Therefore, 1 Silver sheet = 6.3 g / 3 = 2.1g Knox. 1 Silver sheet = 2.1g Knox powder

Silver strength or Gold? The folks at Knox haven't given you complete information. You will find the following topics helpful: Help! Leaf gelatin question... and Gelatin Conversion I don't do a lot with gelatin but I seem to recall that HeatherM had it pretty well figured out: HeatherM's post on gelatin conversion

That's fantastic, Erica! Congrats and best of luck!

For Thanksgiving Day, I'm roasting some game hens using this recipe: Pancetta-Sage Turkey. It's basically a compound butter with herbs and pancetta, stuffed under the skin and roasted. My plan is to make the compound butter (which has pancetta) the day before and stuff it under the skin; then refrigerate the hens until about 1/2 an hour before roasting the next day. Seems like this would allow the hens to absorb some flavor from the compound butter as well as make the Day-of go more smoothly. I want to roast the hens, cut in half, atop a bunch of root vegetables e.g. carrots, fennel, onions, turnips, beets, etc. Does anyone see potential problems? For example, ok to stuff compound butter ahead of time? Ok, to cut hens in half? Since the hens roast so quickly, do I need to start the veggies a little bit ahead of time? Or just remove hens once done to rest and continue roasting veggies as needed. Thanks in advance.

I used this recipe ( here, Post #351 ) just the other day and it was quite excellent. Use Valrhona Guanaja for the chocolate and Valrhona Gastronimie cocoa powder, if available. I split the layers in half and used a caramel ganache icing. PS This is the thread about which Prasantrin was referring, by the way.

Crockpot attached to a dimmer switch. Couldn't you just use a bain marie or even just really low setting atop the stove? (though a romantic dinner for two next to the dimmed crock pot does sound appealing... )

Mendiants

I typically substitute 30 - 40% of the water with vodka and have great results. Don't know if my technique has improved or if it's the vodka but the result is definitely much better than what I was getting before. I do this with pies, tarts and even biscuits and scones.

Looks pretty damn good to me! Just got John Besh's book, My New Orleans and am all set to make Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo. Crossing my fingers, here... haven't made gumbo in many years. Surprising how easy this dish was to make. Prep work took a while but once that was done, it was smooth sailing. The recipe produced a pretty solid example of Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. Didn't rock my world but was, nevertheless, quite enjoyable. The sausages I had access to were not as good as ones from New Orleans, and that made a difference. I think I've almost always had the seafood versions with shrimp, crab and oysters. That'll be my next gumbo.

Great tip about using it to make hamburgers! I noticed over at Cajun Grocers, the ingredients for Tony Chachere's Green Onion Pork Sausage are listed as follows: Pork, water, green onion, salt, sugar, spices, garlic, sodium nitrite. Of course, 'spices' are the trick, here.

Ooooo, I like the look of that. Love a good curd and this one's definitely going into my collection. Thanks!

Ah non, non, non! Les Americains, boh! (tongue in cheek, of course ) Don't assume that you didn't get in because you haven't heard from them. You need to be patient, polite and persistent. Contact them again. If Stephanie Curtis is still associated with the school, ask to speak with her. She's from the U.S., so there won't be any language issues. Bon courage!

Looks pretty damn good to me! Just got John Besh's book, My New Orleans and am all set to make Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo. Crossing my fingers, here... haven't made gumbo in many years.

that's correct but don't add too much because that can be worse than too little. Why not start with, oh, I dunno, 1% - 2%. I always do it by eye. See how that goes. You'll get a feel for it after you've done it a few times.