rickster
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Posts posted by rickster
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Its confirmed that Lance, Landis and some other big name that meant nothing to me, are definitely coming
I'd be surprised that Armstrong is racing after breaking his collarbone last month
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If you google, there are a couple of sources for the product, but they seem like the sizes are for home use. Not sure if they are big/economical enough for commercial use.
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I think Baking With Julia has a recipe for a Hungarian Shortbread Bar Cookie that has a layer of homemade rhubarb jam in the middle. Unfortunately I don't have the recipe.
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While last season's show was billed as "Top Chef-New York," it actually ended up as "Top Chef-New Orleans." I don't disagree with the fact that New Orleans is a great American restaurant city-but why not leave well enough alone? If it's "Top Chef-New York," keep it there. All season.
I would only point out that it is standard practice on the show to hold the finals in a different site. Top Chef Chicago ended up in Puerto Rico and I think another season ended up in Aspen.
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I agree, its a better substitute for ricotta in an Italian cheesecake, but I would be careful about salt since I think there is more salt in cottage cheese than ricotta
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Does anyone make doughnuts using pate a choux piped directly into the hot oil? are these even considered doughnuts?
I thought this is similar to what are called French crullers.
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I like the King Arthur Unbleached flour. I see that their whole wheat flour no longer is King Arthur, but is now a TJ brand.
sadly, tj's is discontinuing all king arthur flours.
That is bad news. They always had the best prices anywhere on King Arthur.
I used to be a huge fan of Trader Joe's, but over time they have migrated more and more to selling only their own branded products, which I find to be hit or miss. These days I use them for only a few select items.
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I never really got a sense of anyone's cooking skills/style on this show. The business of forcing people to work in groups has so far produced some really underwhelming menus featuring dishes that any homemaker could easily rustle up. (shrimp cocktail anyone? Insalata Caprese?)
There's too much camera time given to bickering, too little emphasis on creativity with food. And, IMO, putting pressure on people to produce large volumes of food in short periods of time does not result in creative fare -especially when it has to be designed by a committee.
I really think that the format itself is to blame. By keeping everyone tied to an unfriendly group, you never see an individual's strengths.
I prefer Last Restaurant Standing, by far. -And, I mention this despite being a huge Top Chef fan, because LRS also takes couples where one person is FOH and the other is BOH. On LRS, you get to know the couples for their culinary style, their dreams, and their unique ideas. And, the show has people succeed or fail based upon their actual skills and abilities, within the environment that each couple creates.
I agree with all this, although I have not seen much of LRS.
One thing that bothered me with the format of this show as well as Hell's Kitchen (especially with HK, which I can't take for a number of reasons) is the fakeness of the whole restaurant/guest set up. They try to make you think these are real restaurants when everything is entirely staged. At least with Top Chef they limit it to one episode.
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You could try to do some sort of mandala on the top (or is that purely Tibetan?), especially if it has to be a flattish cake to travel.
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I have a question. In some recipes--for instance, the Bittersweet Brownies and the Chocolate Oatmeal Drops--you call for melting chocolate and butter but not "so hot that the butter separates." I'm not sure what that means. I've had great success with the brownies, using a Pyrex double boiler, but the butter certainly melted all the way each time. I'm about to make the drops, and I realize they have the same instruction, so I thought I'd ask.
I can only guess, but I know if you heat butter to a high enough temperature, the solids coagulate and drop to the bottom - it's how you make clarified butter. I'd guess she doesn't want you to take it this far.
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The current issue (May/June) recommends adding a little Marmite to certain dishes in order to perk up the umami: they report that stews, marinades and so forth can benefit from the extra glutamates. I'm sure that's true, but it makes me wonder: why not just add MSG? It has the same effect, but in a more concentrated form and without a flavor profile of its own.
I would guess that MSG has a pretty negative image to most Cooks Illustrated subscribers and Marmite is a more socially acceptable recommendation.
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I totally agree - he seems short on the food description and long on the interior design.
In the paper, at least half the review is history, interior design and desserts before he even gets to the food, which seemed to me to be very superficially discussed for a 3 star restaurant.
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Panna cotta doesn't have eggs (usually), just cream, flavors/sugar and gelatin.
Sounds like it might work, the key issue being how to keep the chocolate from melting. If you cooled the pana cotta just to the point it was about to set, and maybe refrigerated the molds, it might help.
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It is a sweet, lemony flavor that has a marmalade texture. I have yet to serve one that was not consumed immediately, although sometimes I had to convince people to try the first bite.
This makes me think of a shaker lemon pie as well as an option.
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My local Trader Joe's is selling bagged apricot kernels in its nuts section and they're pretty cheap - they're advertising them as "poor man's almonds". They are roasted - I don't know if that is standard or not. I used some in an amaretti recipe a few weeks ago and it seemed to turn out pretty good. Just whizzed them in a food processor like chopping any other nut.
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Paltrow has said that she doesn't eat meat from four legged animals - chicken and fish/shellfish are OK. I don't think it has anything to do with Jewish dietary restrictions and she was joking when she said "traif" and it really has to do with her semi-vegetarianism.
Excuse my ignorance, but how can you be semi-vegetarian? Either you're a vegetarian or you're not.
I don't know, I think that's quite a debate between those that eat no animal products and those that make an exception for milk and eggs.
My comment was meant to be a bit tongue in cheek, and there are also people who consider themselves vegetarians "but" they make an exception for fish. Gwyneth has just taken it one step further.
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It looks like it might be out of print, but I own and have used East of Paris by David Bouley. It takes a lot of traditional Austro-Hungarian recipes and updates them. Alot of the book seems to be by his #2 guy at Bouley, whose name escapes me but was Austrian.
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I wonder if the bowl shape is a cause of the collapse of the cake? Both recipes were basically meringue based and rely on preserving the egg structure. The bowl can't provide even heating by the nature of its shape. Just speculation on my part, but maybe you would need to use a less delicate cake type for it to work.
Edited to add: beacheschef's point on butter cakes may be getting at the same issue in a different way.
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when a beautiful plate of jamon hit the table, Paltrow actually blurted out the word "traif." I turned it off right then and there.I think some of the repetitive cuisine is due to Gwenyth being a vegetarian who, it seems, does eat shellfish.
Okay. So, Paltrow doesn't approve of jamon because it's not kosher. And yet, she eats shellfish, which I'm sure isn't kosher either.
Paltrow has said that she doesn't eat meat from four legged animals - chicken and fish/shellfish are OK. I don't think it has anything to do with Jewish dietary restrictions and she was joking when she said "traif" and it really has to do with her semi-vegetarianism.
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Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that they are really allowed an hour of hard cooking. But they are given a list of likely theme ingredients to prep a menu around. It seems to me like they can have some basic items up and running for the battle: water simmering, stock or broth premade, etc.
I've read they are given a list of 2-3 possible theme ingredients to prepare for in advance. And they practice the menu to make sure they can bring it in under an hour.
I've also read that in fact they cook the menu twice - once for the TV taping of the cooking, and a second time for the actual judges tasting. I assume it's because the food would get cold by the time they get set up to tape the tasting portion.
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Additionally, the guest judge is not going to know how the cheftestants performed in previous episodes, so it would render their opinion meaningless. When the judging is based solely on the just the meal at hand, the guest judge is as much in the loop and has as valuable an opinion as all the other judges. If other episodes were taken into consideration, guest judges would not have the background on which to base their decision.
But a cumulative points system, where points are awarded based on individual challenges would avoid this. The guest judge would still have input to the individual challenge.
(I am not a fan of a points or cumulative process)
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I get the feeling Carla would have chosen Casey if she had drawn first. But with a different sous, I think she could have pulled off the win. No way would she sous vide anything. Seems that experimenting in the finals loses finals
It's an interesting question. If Richard Blais had been her sous, would he have suggested sous vide or would he have suggested that she stick to her strengths? and if he did suggest sous vide, would she have been more likely to over-rule him than Casey?
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Yow.Za.
(Former) Dallas-ite Casey has some choice words about Carla and the editing of the finale for D Magazine's Side Dish blog:
Carla was not prepared and in over her head. The show did not talk about how the first course (crab) took her half of the friggin’ cooking time that day, I was left to work the rest of HER dishes.She also did not have a plan. The ONLY thing she had in mind was a cheese course! I would NEVER do a cheese course. And where in the hell did french come from!? She is not even classically trained! It (the show) didn’t talk about how I worked on a sauce for 2 days and Carla forgot to put it on the plate… It didn’t show how the 2nd course (fish) was MINE. It didn’t show how she took the sous vide idea and decided to GRILL it last minute causing it to be tough… And it didn’t show how she WANTED to do the souffles which she does not even know how to make! That was HER food, because it certainly was me asking her how she wanted to do this and that while she was busy picking crab the entire time and making a souffle that didn’t rise!
I am done with TC. I did not influence her. She has NO ideas of her own, oh, except a cheese course.
Wow. As many of the commenters to that noted, that was tactless and classless. Carla took the blame on the show, and instead of being grateful for that, Casey made sure to rub it in one more time. While she attempted to save face, she ended up making herself look like a totally mannerless person. In addition to that, Carla's bio on the TC website and Carla herself say that she has classical French training. SO either they're lying, or Casey is just plain wrong.
In her interview in the Washington Post, Carla says she went to L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md.
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He's not. That $3.50 is his cost, at he's charging the customer $7-10.
I vote for the catering option, too. They have to pre-order and pre-pay. That way you never make more than you need, and it will be easier for you to plan. It a good way for you to get your feet wet.
I'm confused. I don't understand the ingredient costing, but I intrepreted this the same as baroness. he's charging the customer $3.50 per challah for 2-3 challahs which is $7-10 per customer per order. I agree he should be charging more than supermarket prices.
Perfect rice pudding or riz au lait
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
What about trying a risotto type rice like arborio or carnaroli?