Lisa Shock

Might be poured fondant, like what is used on petit fours. If it is, it appears to be the white kind poured on, then some of the chocolate kind swirled into it. You can kind of tell that the swirling is unevenly done. I do not think the swirl is caramel (note the upper left where it's really thick), I think it's chocolate fondant thinning out in a lot of white fondant. edited for completeness

Hassouni, I pop out the plastic insert in the bitters bottles and just use an eyedropper in them to pull out as much as needed. Yes, I have to wash the dropper, but it's more accurate and there's less overall waste. Hope this helps!

BTW, I'd like to point out that color has almost nothing to do with flavor in chocolate and cocoa. The darker = richer, or, darker = more flavor, concepts are something that marketing people for cheap chocolate candy companies have been telling consumers rather loudly over the past 5-6 years. I attended a workshop at a pastry conference where representatives from several chocolate companies were present and complaining about this -and demonstrating with blind tastings that color doesn't indicate much of anything at all. There are some really excellent cocoas and bitter chocolates which happen to be light in color, or red, etc.

The charts for converting weight based measurement of dry ingredients to volume measurements are inaccurate and give people a false sense of security about using, say, cups to measure flour. One of the first things I do in basic baking classes is have everyone measure out a cup of AP flour and a cup of sugar then weigh them each on a scale, then, do it again. Everyone gets two different numbers for each product and no one's numbers match anyone else's. These disinformation-graphics just reinforce Americans' false sense of superiority and security while using a highly flawed, sloppy system of so-called 'measurement.' Yes, they have deceptively slick appearances -that doesn't excuse shoddy workmanship. It just means that we'll wind up having to deal with the thousands of poorly educated people who unquestioningly buy into these things as being actually factual. One more step backwards for American cooking, blech. Get a scale; adopting 20th century technology isn't all THAT scary, really. -My English grandmother was using one in the aughts -over a hundred years ago.

Check with your local restaurant wholesale suppliers like Shamrock, Sysco, etc. Some of them will allow people to buy from them if the person picks up at their back door and pays cash. (no delivery)

I prefer Fresh & Easy's house brand bread flour because it is packaged in really heavy plastic bags. I live in a very low humidity area, and sometimes, if KA has been on the shelf for a while it it gets dried out and stale at some supermarkets where there isn't much turnover. Even TJ's isn't great a lot of the time because of the dry air. The Fresh & Easy stuff always gives me great results. F&E also uses these bags for their dry beans, and they also cook up very nicely whereas other brands also have staling issues here. (It's rare for us to see humidity over 18%)

Some cheaper flours contain additives which you may not want to be using.

Some of your recipes may call for dutch process cocoa, some may be fine with natural. The recipe should drive the choice. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/02/cocoa-powder-faq-dutch-process-v/ That said, Pernigotti and Valrhona are two of the highest fat, richest, cocoas.

I have some of Nicolas Lodge's pearl border silicon molds, he has his things custom made, you have to buy through him. It was originally intended for making borders in gumpaste or royal, but they withstand heat, so they work. The mold has to be held open at an angle to fill. When flat there's just a slit on top where the silicon was cut to remove the pearl master. To hand roll, you just need to roll out a thin snake of sugar, no folding, cut at even intervals and roll quickly on a table near your lamp. It's not ideal for production, but, we make things for showpieces (like eyes, or gems for necklaces) in this manner all the time.

Sugar will have the brilliance of color, and, clarity as pictured.

Even when dealing with one manufacturer, there are often a dozen or more types produced. Many make chips designed for cookies, baking bars, and several grades of couveture per type of chocolate. Every one of these will have a different split.

You could freeze them. You could freeze in small ice cube trays, like herbs, for small portions.

Yeah, because every manufacturer offers products whose solids/fat ratio is completely different.

It's going to vary by type/manufacturer, more specifically by the split.

You can mold sugar in silicon molds, I have one designed to make beads. They could also be hand-rolled, it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. So, essentially, I think they are hard candy.

I believe it's Sertir, here's an example of it in use: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Pinces-Sertir-Pate-Sucre-Pate-dAmande-Patisserie-etc-/120895567247?pt=FR_YO_MaisonJardin_Cuisine_UstensilesdeCuisine&hash=item1c25eff58f

If you can you should check out the BBC series Manor House it was a reality show where they took people and made them live in a large estate as if it were the early 1900's. The cook had to make all these foods with period equipment. Also, the family playing the part of the estate owners often protested the foods and kept trying to cheat. There were also some earlier BBC series' only available in the UK called The Victorian Garden, The Victorian Kitchen, etc. where people re-enacted life in late Victorian times. By today's standards, the show is a bit slow and pedantic. I discovered the book, The Victorian Kitchen by Jennifer Davies and found it fascinating. I have a region-free DVD player, so I picked up the DVD set as well.

5-10 minutes is a really long pre-heat. It sounds like you're getting the pan too hot, especially if the meat is coming out tough. Try taking the temperature of the inside of the pan with an infrared thermometer and see what the temperature is and adjust from there. Garlic does burn pretty quickly, and lose its flavor quickly even if not burnt, which is why I like to add it partway through stir-frying not at the start. The oil is the main clue here, if that's really smoking, the pan is too hot.

I'd try asking other chefs, especially those whose restaurants advertise that the offer locally produced foods. See if you can attend a local ACF meeting and ask the chefs there, someone is bound to know. If there's a culinary school nearby, try attending an open house and asking there. -Schools like to have extracurricular activities that involve local farmers, and they may also have required students to write a paper on local foods, requiring students to get out and find these growers.

Bourbon in American-style baked beans is fairly common. Other than that, I only have some vague recollections of white wine in some dish I have forgotten -catch is wine is acidic and should interfere with cooking the beans.

Crepes, and then assorted things to fill the crepes.... One of the weirder things I know about is that some places make grilled cheese sandwiches by placing two pieces of bread on the griddle and the cheese (in a well oiled spot) -you have to be fast, but you can pick up the cheese with a spatula then place it on one of the bread slices and top with the other. It speeds things up immensely. (traditional grilled cheese takes a long time, and this is why it's never taken off as fast food -except at Sonic, where an employee showed me this trick) You can make all sorts of creative grilled cheese combinations.One place I know of makes tuna melts this way, too.

What about a chunky salad of crunchy vegetables with a dressing based on flavoring some veganaise? (so it's lower in acid than a vinaigrette)

Yeah, that's what I am thinking. I'll probably get around to baking something tomorrow night and see.

Has anyone ever lined their pan with med-fine pearl sugar? I am thinking about making a brioche that I want to turn out of a mold and would like some decoration on it. I was wondering if the pearl sugar would survive as white bits, or would caramelize? I am thinking of spraying the pan then tossing some pearl sugar in, and then adding the dough.

I have always found choux to be useful for catering because one can make savory items as well as sweets with it. Obviously there are gougere, but, you can do a lot by rethinking the fat in the dough. Bacon fat, duck fat, chicken fat, brown butter, and more can be used, as well as small amounts of flavor such as smoke or herbs. Then, fillings can be all sorts of savory mousses, bound salads, dips, etc.