Lisa Shock

I used to think I disliked certain types of beans and then realized I didn't like the dish I had associated them with. (I hate my Mom's navy bean soup. I also hate bacon. Until I was an adult, I had only tried certain types of beans cooked with bacon. Once I started being a vegetarian, the world changed.) I started trying different spices and applications, and now I like them all. Lentils are a sad story for me. I became a vegetarian in college. So, I wound up eating some meals in other vegetarian students' homes. Lentil stew got made quite frequently. Even as an adult, it would show up quite often as the vegetarian dish made by hippie types during my 14 years living in New Mexico. (lentils, potatoes, and carrots, flavored with salt and black pepper) After a while, I could no longer eat lentil stew, I was sick of it. Then, years later, I was watching a cooking show and the host was making some meat filled pastries from Morocco (IIRC) and flavored them with allspice, cinnamon and dried chiles. And, I suddenly realized that I could spice lentils like that. So now, I add some 'sweet' spices to my lentils, in addition to onions and dried chile, and they are good. -And different enough to get kind comments at potlucks. I have made recipes I like for lots of beans now. India is a great source for ideas, people there make so many beans in so many ways. Baked beans from a can are ok, but I am working on perfecting really great baked beans. I am close, but not quite there yet. I do have an aversion to eating beans with pasta, that's where the texture bugs me. Minestrone is ok, but, I tend to not eat pasta and beans in the same bite. I also tend to prefer cooked from dry as opposed to canned. The canned are ok as a quick hot meal, but I disguise them with lots of vegetables and sauce.

I love those noodle handbags.

Sometimes, food distributors will give samples. If you buy from one of them, call your rep and ask. Also, attending trade shows can get you a lot of free/low cost product.

I got the original carnation recipe from 'Aromas and Flavors of the Past and Present' by Alice B. Toklas.

Sprouts, a local grocery chain here, carries the freeze dried fruit. They're kind of a Whole Foods competitor. Amazon carries a variety from different companies. HERE is a strawberry powder, reviewers say it is very smooth and flavorful. For extracts and liqueurs, I start with grain alcohol. The % of alcohol in it varies by state, some require it to be less alcoholic than others. But, it always has more alcohol in it than vodka. Vodka is at least half water and this water can impede the effects of alcohol. I discovered this years ago while making carnation liqueur; vodka did nothing after a month, everclear was lovely after a few days. My system is generally to infuse for a few days to a couple of weeks, then mix 50-50 with simple syrup for a liqueur, and just use straight for extract. Check out the liqueurs thread here on eG, you'll get a lot of tips. The toughest flavors to make, IMO, are peach/apricot and mango. (if you want to try carnation, you need to use flowers from someone's garden, the flowershop ones have been fed chemicals in their water after being cut, and those chemicals will leach into the alcohol and make it take horrible. Also, just use the flower petals, pick them off the calyxes and discard the calyx and stamens they are bitter) If you are going to make strawberry extract, check your berries carefully. (they're not in season right now) The berries from the supermarket are practically flavorless, even in season, since they are bred to withstand shipping, not bred for flavor. The berries with the best flavor, IMO, are the tiny French ones. There's also a great white strawberry, but, it is rarely grown. To get those, you need to find someone growing them in their garden or a greenhouse. I belong to a local group of people who trade produce from our gardens, we have a FaceBook page. You may be able to find a similar group in your area. Barring that, look for the ripest ones you can get. The way to tell is that they will be deep red all the way to the tip. If the tip is green or white, they are not ripe. The one caveat I have food-safety-wise is that really fatty foods (like bacon), when infused, may push the limits of the alcohol's solvent properties and leave behind tiny globules of fat which can support some types of bacteria. So, just because something is infused in alcohol does not mean that it's necessarily shelf stable and certainly not sterile. I think I have been ok with citrus, partly because citrus skin oils are a lot more flavorful, gram for gram, than bacon fat. So, my orange extract has less fat in it and it's all dissolved. That's also how limoncello works, and I have not heard of it going rancid or being a health risk like the warnings I see for bacon vodka. A berry extract should have better shelf life than a puree. I will say that once, long, long ago, I tossed a small handful of black raspberries (really ripe ones) into a bottle of vodka and returned two weeks later to a very fragrant drink. But, vodka is just too unreliable overall for me now. You can also buy some great liqueurs, I have seen some nice ones from France with fruit in the bottle and handwritten labels, but they are pricey.

The microwave can be a great option, especially since it is so easy. It also concentrates flavor, if you cook the vegetables plain without added water. That said, I do not have one. I use a Chinese bamboo steamer. I don't like those metal steamer baskets, as I feel that the metal heats up (it is touching the pan bottom) and can become hotter than steam and overcook the vegetables. With the the bamboo steamer, I do not recall getting colored water, ever. The vegetable sit very high and the bamboo remains cool. There's a little condensation, but not much, the steam mostly passes on through. For me, the added bonus is the ability to cook something in the water in the pot, like some pasta or rice. When I was just out of college and sharing a house with three other women, I used to make dinner like this all the time because I could make a meal on one burner. I would take a tempered glass cup, like pyrex, and put some sauce in it and heat it with the vegetables. Sometimes, it was some tomato sauce or some other pre-made sauce. Other times, I would put in creme fraiche or sour cream or butter, plus herbs, maybe grated lemon peel, and minced garlic or onion and kind of assemble a simple sauce.

You can also get good flavor & color from the freeze-dried fruits. They make great nougats when whole, and if you grind them into a powder they make a water-free flavor concentrate. Also, bottled flavors aren't necessarily evil, btw. I make my own extracts and liqueurs. It can often be a good way to get consistent flavor from batch to batch. (and citrus extracts are so easy to make!)

Some of it depends on what the place serves. Most places have some staples on hand, a bakery can easily make fresh loaves of bread, for example. And there are vegetables which can be stored for long periods: potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. I know that some places now use only cryovac meats, and they can be stored under refrigeration for a very long time. Cheese also comes sealed and can be stored for months. Some places are now serving almost all of their entrees from cryovac bags. They heat up some frozen rolls, toss a salad together from a bag of pre-washed greens, then just boil your meal in its bag.

Have you tried white chocolate mixed with plain cocoa butter? How about pate de fruit? (pectin as the filler)

I just watched 'Sweet Bean', あん, on Netflix. Part of it goes into great detail about the making of the red bean paste used for making dorayaki and other confections. I really enjoyed the film, it's about focus, perfecting dishes, and making real food from scratch -among other things.

The article is poorly written. I suspect the author is very young, and is referring to those bagged apple slices when saying the lack of browning is a sign of freshness. BTW, a lack of browning is not a sign of freshness at all. The browning is just iron reacting with oxygen and forming tiny rust particles. The companies that make the sliced bagged apples pack them in inert gas so that they will look pretty for a much longer time than a home-sliced apple would. So, a lack of browning is simply a sign that oxygen has not been introduced into the sliced apples' bag. An apple sliced at home in the morning and placed in a regular food storage container or bag will be brown by lunchtime, but fresher than the pre-sliced apple. I avoid those processed apples. I cannot believe that people pay extra for them. (or that people, like the article's author, somehow view them as the norm now)

Agreed. The health code is pretty clear on this sort of thing. You aren't even allowed to re-use a plate to give a customer seconds. Every buffet has signage asking people to use fresh clean plates for each trip. There's no way you could repeatedly wash real lemon peels at appropriate temperatures, then sanitize them, and have much of anything usable left. Anything that food is served on or with which is going to be used more than once has to be able to run through the dish washing and sanitizing process. Here's just one quote from the US FDA 2009 Health Code on washing tableware: "The surface temperature must reach at least 71ºC (160ºF) as measured by an irreversible registering temperature measuring device to affect sanitization. When the sanitizing rinse temperature exceeds 90ºC (194ºF) at the manifold, the water becomes volatile and begins to vaporize reducing its ability to convey sufficient heat to utensil surfaces. The lower temperature limits of 74ºC (165ºF) for a stationary rack, single temperature machine, and 82ºC (180ºF) for other machines are based on the sanitizing rinse contact time required to achieve the 71ºC (160ºF) utensil surface temperature." And, lacquered items are generally not acceptable tableware, as the lacquer can chip and be accidentally consumed. They also don't like anything organic in general as tableware. Everything should be inert and resist breakage. BTW, the lemons cups, if used just once, should be carefully washed before being cut with gloved hands and hollowed and stored in sanitized containers. Lemons for some reason are a food often mishandled in bars and restaurants. Check out THIS news report. Have you seen the molds for making shot glasses from ice? The Chicago School of Mold Making can make you a hollow lemon half mold that you could then freeze with sorbet or some other ice cream product instead. El Bulli used to use custom molds made from real fruit.

Check Mexican/S.American grocery stores. They often carry the fruit and the paste. The fruit is just starting to come into season and may not be shipping quite yet.

Back in the day, vegans were using applesauce to replace eggs in baking because the pectin, when exposed to sugar acts like a binder. The brownies were not good, but vegans got used to them. Then, in the 90s fat-free craze, people started trying to sub applesauce for fat, too. It doesn't work well as a fat substitute, at least not in something like a brownie where people have expectations of what the word 'brownie' is supposed to mean. (a real brownie at room temperature gets much of its texture from cocoa butter and butter -oil doesn't help them either) You can't just substitute, you need a recipe formulated to work. HERE is such a recipe, it will make a brown colored baked-good, but read the comments carefully, it won't be a real brownie. " The taste and texture was off, and I wasn't inclined to want a second one" "disgusting" "rubbery" I prefer brownie recipes that use real chocolate, where most of the fat is cocoa butter. They have a better, more chocolate-y flavor, and the texture people expect. Plus any added health benefits from the chocolate. IMO, people should just eat the real thing rather than an imitation. If a totally healthy snack is called for, then make some decent granola bars or delicious bran muffins. And, for many seniors, getting enough calories can be a challenge, making a real brownie a perfect occasional snack.

I knew a caterer that had a series of units attached to a wall, 2 high, instead of a walk-in. Each one was big enough to hold full sheet pans, but, approximately half the size of a regular home fridge. (and oriented horizontally) They worked well, but, I have no idea what the brand was.

Mango is one of those fruits, like peaches and apricots, that has components that taste like chalk when cold. (it's also hard to make extracts and liqueurs from these as well) It helps a lot if the fruit is falling apart ripe, or cooked. Some people will always find it weird tasting. My homemade mango sorbet always tasted "like vomit" to one member of my tasting panel.

larb

You could cut them to fit, yes there would be gaps, but, if you piped in a little ganache (smoke flavored?) and then pressed the marshmallow down, the ganache would rise up around the marshmallow. You could maybe soak graham crackers in heated cream like making cereal milk, and maybe add smoke flavor, then make a white chocolate ganache. -This way you wouldn't have to worry about the graham crackers getting soft.

chicken hash for breakfast with fried potatoes and red onions chicken salad sandwiches, or on a bed of greens (there are some deluxe versions out there including Coronation Chicken ) terrine frittata (and a vegetable like some chopped fresh tomato to brighten it a bit) these are good hot or cold: breakfast, brunch, lunch cold asian sesame noodles

I became a vegetarian in 1979 because I was really tired of steak for dinner at home (my family raised our own grass-fed beef before it was cool) and the college cafeteria meat was frightful -a lot like the soles of shoes. I think I was a vegetarian for a semester without really knowing it because I'd go through the cafeteria line and get the vegetables and the salad bar and was happy. Over the years, I turned out to be the only member of my family without high blood pressure and without a need to take antacids. (sometimes, I will sip on pickle juice because I like it) A year ago, I had a doppler ultrasound of my neck (carotids and jugulars) and my blood vessels are totally clear. The tech said the images were like the images she had seen in her textbook of a baby's blood vessels. (some of this might be due to the fact that I gave up eating transfat around 1992 when that first big study about it clogging arteries came out) I currently don't eat much of the meat analog stuff, I'm just not that interested in meat. As a child, I loathed hot dogs because they oozed grease. I hate/d pepperoni on pizza because it forms little cups filled with grease. I also hated bacon as a child. I do like Smart Dogs, mostly because they are not greasy at all, don't have a meat texture, and because I really like the combination of mustard sweet relish and chopped onions as a topping. But, I eat Smart Dogs maybe once a year, usually if I am trying to feed someone else's kids. IMO, the world has so many vegetables and so many ways to prepare them, I get a lot of variety in my meals. I did taste a burger, one bite, at one of the newer super-hyped gourmet burger places a couple of years ago. I am still wondering why people bother to eat this stuff at all -it tasted like a thick chunk of felt. Boring. I'd prefer a falafel over it anytime. So, no, I am really not interested. I really prefer the veggie burgers where you can taste the vegetables they are made from, or mostly just not having a burger at all. (falafel, grilled cheese sandwich, eggplant parm, etc.) If the new meat from a petri-dish stuff is better for the environment and doesn't hurt animals, I would be happy to see real burger fanatics switch. I really wouldn't eat it, not interested.

Yeah, it's made to be used for hours on a daily basis. We had them in the culinary school I attended. School ran three tracks of classes: early morning, afternoon and evening. So, they'd often get used by three different class groups a day. I was there for over 2 years, and my work study job was in the same office as the person who ordered new equipment. I never saw one need to be replaced.

Thanks for sharing your journey with us, and patiently answering our questions, you've given us a window into a process that isn't usually discussed in such detail. Would you describe your favorite/primary chef's knife?

Agreed, your precious storage space would be more efficiently used storing finished product -especially if you choose your containers' shape (rectangular, square, sizes that multiply to the inner dimensions of the freezer). This way, you aren't wasting space on peels, rinds, seeds, stems, etc. You could also package the sorbet in individual portion sized serving cups, if you have access to those. A basic sorbet is fruit puree, simple syrup, with maybe a little extra lemon/lime juice for contrast. It is easily made in the old-fashioned five quart ice cream machines, whether hand-crank or electric, which use ice and salt. Sanitation should be first and foremost, since the final mix is not cooked, there is a lot of potential for spreading disease. Your machine(s) will need to be sanitized and stored in a clean area. That food processor appears to be a home-user type appliance. (I haven't seen one in the US.) It costs about 300pounds, and I guess it's ok, for a small home user appliance that doesn't get much of a workout. The reviews show it to be of middling quality with a tendency for the plastic bowls and blades to beak within 2-3 years of typical home use (pulled out maybe 2-3 times a month, tops). Trust me, these apparently 'high end' home appliances rely on the fact that once the novelty wears off, these things mostly just decorate kitchens, they get used on average about once a month. IMO, you'd be much better off saving up, maybe starting a crowdfunding campaign, spending more and getting a Vitamix which has a MUCH more powerful motor, or, getting a professional machine like a Robot Coupe which has all the parts made of metal.

Whoops! Ok, I only watched until the chicken went into the fryer, figuring that they explained everything in steps as it happened. Because the egg and milk are mixed, I don't think it's a brine or marinade, I think it's just functioning as part of a breading station, holding the spice mix and flour on.

I was wondering about brining and such. I knew someone who worked at KFC and sometime in 2004-ish got to ask him about the coleslaw. He said that they cut the cabbage and then salted & sugared it and let it sit overnight, then drained and added the dressing. My suspicion would be that maybe the chickens got tossed with salt, pepper, and sugar and allowed to sit overnight. I just found THIS video of the Colonel making the chicken on live TV. He appears to coat plain chicken in the dry flour mix. (I also found photos of him demonstrating to franchisees, it was definitely never a batter) Despite this being a 'softball' piece, and not hard journalism, IMO one of the hosts would have asked what the chicken was coated with if it had been brined in buttermilk. Note that Minnie comments on the pressure fryer, and both she and Ernie knew about paper bag shaking. It seems like Minnie has made some chicken in her day, and Ernie has at least watched people cook it. I really strongly suspect that the buttermilk soak is spurious. There's a good chance that advance seasoning, with at least salt, would have drawn out water making it easier to coat that plain chicken from the package. (note that the Colonel clearly states that the chicken is fried in hydrogenated oil, some modern differences may be due to the change in oil when they eliminated trans fat a while back) Also note the canister that Ernie holds up as a retort when the Colonel says he doesn't have 11 herbs and spices. I wonder if that's supposed to be a famous competing brand, or Claudia's mixture? I understand the chemistry, somewhat, of buttermilk soaking. I suspect, although no one has tested it, that it's related to the effect that Heston Blumenthal saw with yogurt. (fast forward to 13:03 to see the lab work) But, it adds extra expense, and takes up space in the walk-in. And, since this recipe was developed prior to reliable air conditioning and refrigeration, and in the hot/humid South, I am pretty skeptical about it. I think maybe they just salt & peppered (and maybe added sugar) in the morning, an hour or so before frying. In the HJF video, I suspect the prefer the KFC leg slightly over the home made simply because of the pressure frying and the surface area ratio. BTW, the HJF people talk about the finger-licking sauce, I have never had it. But, I looked it up on the KFC website. The main ingredients are vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup. I suspect that a decent facsimile, especially for those without a modernist pantry, would be to take some mayonnaise and add sugar and the spice mix. It will probably taste good. I also think that people's perception of the crispness and flavor is probably affected by the modern hot-holding system they now use. I think they are holding cooked chicken significantly longer than they used to. Today, I made fried potatoes and eggs for breakfast. I added about ¼teaspoon of the seasoning to the potatoes as they cooked, removed them from the pan, lowered the heat and scrambled some eggs, then tossed it all together. It was good, I probably should have added a little salt, in my fear of saltiness I just used the seasoning, and got it under-seasoned. I also dipped a chunk of cantaloupe in the mix. It wasn't great, oddly enough, it was intriguing but ultimately bad. -The smoke from the pimenton was the first flavor to register, which is odd because I only used half as much as called for with paprika. I think there's untapped potential for the spice mix. I am still contemplating....