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Eastgate

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Everything posted by Eastgate

  1. How about a bit of remoulade? And maybe a small baked ricotta? That would give you the salad and the transition. The mustard in the remoulade would be a nice echo for the mousse, and a light cheese course would anticipate the composed dessert. Or, how about remoulade with cheesy gougeres? Or a pear-Roquefort Madeleine?
  2. Bumping this thread, because it's been a while and I'm headed for a short trip to greater Santa Fe. What's great? I'm astonished at the stability of the recommendations here. I remember a bunch of places people extol in -- The Shed, The Compound, Coyote, Pascual, Geronimo, SantaCafe -- fondly from trips in the 90's. Unless I'm mistaken, I remember good things about Pascual from the 60's! That sort of stability does happen -- there are plenty of places in Paris that were good twenty years ago and are great today, too -- but I think it's hard to do in the US. I'd also have assumed that Santa Fe would have attracted a bunch of talent along the lines of Carlos Gaytan’s Mexique (Chicago/Top Chef), who does French-inflected Mexican, or Rick Bayless’ Topolobampo (also Chicago). And perhaps something innovative in the fancy food/informal service spectrum (like SF's Canteen -- fine food in a diner -- or Momofuku, or State Bird Provisions with its dim sum-style carts). So what's new and terrific in and around Santa Fe??
  3. Advance apologies for what's doubtless a duplicate query but... I just learned that I'm zooming into the city for a The Glass Menagerie, and zooming out again. I'd love suggestions for a convenient and interesting place -- needn't be fancy -- for an early dinner before theater.
  4. I'm heavily invested now in kolaches, and I'm in a minor panic. I've just mixed the dough, scaled up 4x from the recipe Jaymes suggested. (I translated the volumetric measure to 66oz) The dough is described, after mixing, as being "wet and sticky". What I have here is a very slack dough. It’s (barely) pourable. Can this be right? I'm keeping the faith, but I'm worried. How slack is too slack? How do I distinguish "wet and sticky" from "unworkable"? If, come morning, the dough really is too slack, what’s the best fix at this (6 qt) scale? I'm basically a loaf-at-a-time baker.Help me, egullet! You're my only hope!
  5. On the sausage rolls: are they going to stay tasty even if they sit for a couple of hours? Especially on the weekend, volunteers will be streaming in all morning. And on election day, you’ve got the poll workers at 6am and canvassers from 9 on. Should I be thinking of the sausage in these rolls they way I’d think of a paté? Cold sausage seems odd, but of course chopped liver and egg, or paté de campagne, makes perfect sense to me. Love the suggestions here! I may just try the Farinata, too.
  6. I've been tapped to prep morning and mid morning snacks for our critical special election here in Massachusetts. What should I make? The staging areas have no catering facilities to speak of. No staff. And lots of people will want to grab and go, which means breakfast pastry of some sort. Things I have in mind: - scones: currant, chocolate cherry, chocolate-apricot (Princeton), date - tea breads: pear-walnut, banana , lemon poppy - butter streusel coffee cake - grapes, apples, - gougeres, or maybe little eclairs? - something in the donut family (beigneits sur la plage, petes de nonne) I'm not entirely happy with this, even though I love carbs. What would provide balance? What would be a nifty indulgence? I'm toying with smoked fish or smoked turkey, but will people really like it? Cheese?
  7. Eastgate

    Superbowl – 2013

    Chopped chicken liver. I might make some brioche, too.
  8. Oh this is easy! Make a nice pâté sucre, fill it with lemon curd, and garnish with those blackberries! Enjoy!
  9. Try the little goat diner. I went a couple of weeks back, Izard was very much on the line, and it's a fascinating concept. Drinks: second violet hour. Alts: aviary, sable. Frontera alt: Mexique. Blackbird alt: Avec (next door, also Kahn. Have the dates)
  10. Our final package (huge) was thanksgiving, but that's inevitable in New England. Lots of carrots, turnips, parsnips, and winter squash. I really need to expand my winter squash horizons beyond roasted ( garlic, thyme) and pie. Not that there's anything wrong with pie.
  11. Eastgate

    Preparing custards

    I agree completely, if you're comfortable with guests in the kitchen or, if this is not an app, if your guests can entertain themselves while you're cooking the custard. Make extra. One can wreck a custard, even if you're good; stuff happens. But, definitely, if you can manage it, a la minute is better.
  12. Eastgate

    Preparing custards

    I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure the real experts will want to know whether this is restaurant service or family dinner.
  13. Can you envision a way to scale this to an app or tapa course? I'm just back from Kolkata and those Kati rolls sure are something to write home about, but I'm worried about balancing a meal. And it's easier to cover disaster if an app blows up!
  14. This fine thread has been quiet for years; what's best NOW in Kolkata? Also, about street food: any advice on safety and prudence for Westerners traveling?
  15. People should also keep in mind the generations of cooks that Alice Waters trained and promoted. Especially female cooks who, before Chez Panisse, were rare in the US snd even more rare in Europe. Add to that the role of Panisse in getting BayArea artisanal foods going, and you've got a legacy for the ages -- never mind the nay-sayers.
  16. Would like to bump this stale thread for fresh attention -- especially with reference to Oceanique.
  17. It's been a long time. Hamburg is a big place. I'm about to visit! Any recent intelligence?
  18. In addition to suggesting the right grip, you might discourage the wrong one-- holding the very end of the handle. This will be an interesting design problem, as you normally need that handle for balance, and for picking up the idle knife.
  19. This sounds like a broken emulsion. It happens. Assuming you didn't scramble the yolks, you can fix it like a broken holland aisle -- another yolk, beat with some water, add in the broken sauce. On the metallic taste: if this was a broken emulsion, the sugar would all be in the water layer. Ditto the starch. So the top layer would be egg, milk fats, and vanilla. I'd check that vanilla: how old is it? What does it taste like?
  20. I disagree with the advice to stick, with guests, to tried and true recipes. Admittedly, you don't want to inflict a dish that's likely to fail on a mere acquaintance or your new boss. But friends are friendly, and unfamiliar dishes are high risk and high reward. Shared adventure is fun. When trying dishes of which I'm not confident, I like to put then next to a course that's not likely to be a disaster. Also, mywife's scandinavian Nestor's insist that, in any case, a dinner party must have plenty of food. Too much is enough. If a course doesn't work, there are plenty of others. My Xmas eve dinner had a savory jelly and a spherified apple caviar, both new to me and both a little bit intricate. What went wrong? I forgot all about the focaccia in the oven! So, we had *caramelized* onion focaccia crackers, which turned out to be just fine with smoked turkey and root moos. Friends come to inner hoping for those hughwire acts. They won't mind a slip. Yorkshire pudding: you know popovers? It's a savory popover. Drop the sugar, use drippings (if you have them) instead of butter. Popovers are great sides. Souffles, also, are easy and reliable, but people give you style point because they're thought to be hard.
  21. I'm looking for a good online source for modest quantities of quality sheet gelatin. Where do you find yours?
  22. I have the eBook. It's an accomplishment. I'm an eBook pro, and so my attention naturally runs to the things I'd have done differently. There are a number of these, but that's inside baseball. In essence, the strengths and weaknesses here are quite close to those of the Alinea book: - elegant production with lavish photography - a very modest price, well below what the book could command - fine and candid writing, though perhaps not quite enough of it - recipes you could duplicate, though you probably won't. Though painting chocolate from a spray gun does sound like a swell time! - thoughtful (though too short) explanations of the reasoning behind each dish For example, the chicken course is discussed in terms f the criticism some expressed that it was undercooked. Escoffier is quite clear that he thinks chicken breasts should be cooked VERY gently, and I had guessed that this course was an argument for using sous vide techniques and modern ideas for plating to approach what Escoffier wanted to do. The book explains the concept nicely. It's a valuable discussion, and it advances cookery . Like the Alinea book, the typography is elegant but not distinguished for legibility.
  23. Our winter Farm Share often includes a generous amount of top round, a cut of beef with which I seem to have gotten off onto the wrong foot. It doesn't seem to take exceptionally well to grilling, braising, or to roasting en papillote. Now, I've found that many cuts have at least one particular preparation to which they are wonderfully suited: pastrami for brisket or navel, pot roast for chuck, confit for duck legs. What should I be trying with all this top round?
  24. While on this subject.... Is there any cut of lamb with similar properties? I find that lamb shoulder, for example, is generally too lean for that fall-apart braise effect, and lamb shanks, while grand, are not really the right ballpark. I'm thinking of something like corned lamb.....
  25. Just want to double-check the figures, bread guy. You have 5 lb flour and 4 lb water. That looks awfully dry to me. And then the next morning you're adding more flour. Might you have meant "pints" where you typed "cups"?
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