Jump to content

ermintrude

participating member
  • Posts

    455
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ermintrude

  1. The waters very hard where I live, I get distilled or de ionized water from the chemists
  2. Electric Oven(s) Induction Hob + 1 or more Gas Rings Electric Oven(s) - Dry heat and more controllable, if you get a good one it can also do low temp cooking or even steam. Induction Hob - The very fast and most efficient heat you can get BUT limited with pans, can't roast peppers etc. Gas fast but not energy efficient. Some manufacturers are doining combined induction and gas 2x2 hobs but my ideal, if you can go for it, would be to use unit based devices so 2 induction, 1 gas wok burner, 2 induction and if you had the space a frying surface or grill.
  3. Got my copy yesterday and it's a gorgeous book. Basically 3 parts: Autobiography/History; Recipes; Science. Up to around page 56 of the first part and it's a good read. Recipes interesting but many are very complex - can't see me doing one completely BUT great ideas to use in there. The science part just skimmed but looks interesting.
  4. Are you trying to coat them with melted chocolate? Might powered chocolate work? And: what effect are you going for? If you just want a liquid coated in chocolate, why not freeze the liquid into a sphere, dip it in chocolate, & let it melt in the 'fridge? Why bother w/ alginate at all? Best, jk ← Was thinking of making some alcoholic reverse spheres - and freezing's a problem there. But you've got me thinking perhaps I could freeze the spheres - the alginate should freeze even if the alcohol does not - and the cold temp would cause the chocolate to quickly solidify. Also a divided alginate sphere 1/2 coated in chocolate was another idea. It is - out of 16 I managed to coat 2 and not very pretty at that! Think I'll need to play one weekend and see what happens. Perhaps rolling in one of coco, cornstarch, maltodextrin may give the chocolate enough traction.
  5. Anyone any ideas of how you could coat an alginate sphere with chocolate? It won't stick on it's own
  6. Most people take "Molecular gastronomy" to take this type of cooking to be things that are unusual- Mellon Caviar, Foams, Hot ice Cream, involve liquid niitrogen etc. However the best chefs to use "Molecular gastronomy" use the science behind cooking and human psychology to develop good food. For me a good meal at a restaurant (or dinner party( has many components the three major ones being:- Food, Company, Setting. For example I recently did an 8 course dinner and there were several "Molecular" dishes. Sous Vide Scalops - All the diners saw were tender butter poached scalops seared on the outside. Clear Bloody Mary Shot - Well not 100% clear and done via gelatin clarification - that got the conversation going. Soup Sphere - A reverse spherification of toato and pepper soup in parmisan foam with deep fried parma ham. When the sphere is prodded it bursts and a bowl of soup is there! The scallops were there - because they taste better that way. The Clear Bloody Mary Shot because the texture is lighter, the Soup Sphere because it was fun and made people smile and talk and so helped in the whole meal. Anyway back to the Soup Sphere this was a reverse spherification made by adding Calcium Gluconate to the soup, freezing into semi hemispherical molds then drooping into an alginate bath. They were then removed and just before serving poached to bring them to temperature. When complete the spheres were 1/2 way between the size of a tennis and golf ball, While this worked, as a fun dish, the problem was when the sphere was popped it left a skin of alginate that had no flavor. Next time I'd like to use a flavored alginate in the bath. E.g. Tomato soup with a basil alginate - this would should give a green sphere that fills the bowl with red soup when popped.
  7. We have a charity cake sale at work and through the last two have become known for making cakes with unusual ingredients. Tomato & Olive oil soup cake with cheese icing Chocolate and beetroot cake These were the fastest seller and the highest priced per slice so made lots for charity. I got loads of complements on them. Anyone got any recipes for cakes that use unusual ingredients or have a surprise (not looks) aspect about them. However above all they must taste nice as I don't want to use something unusual just for shock value but I'd like to keep up the surprise factor.
  8. Did this in a thermomix. Added the dry ice, blitzed in thermomix poured in ice cream mixture. But some problems along the way, the dry ice was hard to crush so some big chunks, also I used to much dry ice, so the ice cream was fizzy when I tried to reblend in the thermomix as it made the bowl go very very cold this caused it to error (Only way the error resolved was when the bowl came back to normal temp - talking to a thermomix representative they think this could be due to ice formation on the contacts which would happen the moment I lifted the bowl out. However leaving the ice cream to sit so the excess CO2 evaporated the ice cream was great - and considering I was using milk not cream I was impressed. Also be careful and wear gloves when dealing with dry ice, if you spill some liquid nitrogen on your hand it will evaporate and form a barrier and the nitrogen gas will protect your hand and liquid is easy to displace. If you drop a chunk of dry ice on your hand while the same effect can occur if the weight of the dry ice overcomes the pressure of the CO2 it will burn you. This is why, I assume, if you watch perfection Heston Blumenthal's does not use gloves with liquid nitrogen but does with the dry ice. Best of all use appropriate gloves when using either.
  9. Some ideas, You could try say maltodextrin (a bulking agent but sugar based) in place of the sugar ? Perhaps make a foam from egg white and a base ingredient and cook in a microwave (See the Cooks Book where Ferain Adria does this with pistachio foam) but not tried this in a thin layer.
  10. Well when you take out the obvious factors - say everyones ordering bacon and there's been a feature in the paper, or salads when it's hot look at the maths. It's probably all down to probability and human perception. On the everyday when customers order a wide spread you forget it (it didn't make you notice it) but when everyone orders the same thing you remember it and human nature tries to figure out a reason. The classic is if someone dreams a person they know dies and the next day they did! Wow your dream was a premonition and it registers hugely in your consciousness. but if you take cases where people record there dreams and the person (supposidly dead) is ok it get's forgotten as a bad dream. If you look at the probability of dreaming someone dies and that person dies and multiply it by the millions of people in the country it happens all the time. As Terry Pratchet say's in one of his diskworld books "Million to one chances always work" - then a bizzare narrative to up the chances to kill the dragon to a million to on ! If you really want to try to know you could try to keep a log of:- - What customers ordered (you could only be remembering the exceptional times) - The weather that day - Hot = Salad, Cold = Hot & Comfort - Newspapers - What was the influence of that? - Your stock (The quality of food - perhaps an aromatic bacon from a supplier) - Who's cooking/serving (Perhaps when certain members of staff are on this happens) - and so on Supermarkets do this to adjust their orders (E.g if the weather forecast is hot more ice cream, BBQ etc). Article on X then have more (or less) X in stock and so on. It's very complex and if your a huge business you probably can't do it, but keep a diary and compare it with your orders, you may be surprised what you find.
  11. In a similar vein deep frying thin slices of serano until they grisp up taste amazing and make great ways to add floavor and be a garnish
  12. Basil sorbet Basic bavois Lemon Thyme Ice Cream Sage panacotta To name a few
  13. Basic roast chicken. 1 Very Good Quality Chicken Take 6oz of butter and spread all over the chicken Loads of salt and pepper Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon over the top. Take the halves of lemon from the above, 1 medium onion quartered with a couple of cloves of smashed garlic and stuff them up it's bottom. Roast and baste occasionally. Take chicken out to rest fo 10 mins. Meanwhile take the juices and chuck into a blender (a pinch of lethicin is good to help emulsify the gravy) then add a little bit of fresh taragon. Keep warm till chicken has rested. Top Tip:- If using a cheap chicken then blend some strong spices e.g. Tom Yum Gung paste or Curry past with the butter and smear all over. (Skip the Taragon for the gravy if you do this). Also as the cook - you get to eat the oysters. And when usinh what's left for stock take out the lemon or your stock will be very bitter.
  14. advantages Most fuel efficient cooktop, More controllable than gas, Heats things up extreamly quickly heats the pan so kitchen doesn't get to hot, safe they turn off if pan left off for a while, cooktop does not get very hot so difficult to burn yourself by accident. disadvantages Can only use pans a magnet will stick to Not good for round bottom pans like woks (but you can get induction wok burners now for £££) No flame - if you want to char peppers etc. On high power they can hum (does not bother most but some hate it) Cost more
  15. Really want food to make people go wow food wise considering the season:- (And depending on prep tome / money) i'd go for this menu:- Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, el Pata Negra - Your in Amsterdam so no problem to get it. Costs the earth but worth it, serve on it's own simply with good bread. If you'd like to add a little texture then perhaps some slices of perfectly ripe melon or pear. and/or Clear tomato consomme (ever so slightly gelled, enough to just hold the crab) spiked with finely chopped basil leaves with a heap of fresh white crab meat in the middle. and/or Cucumber & Crème fraîche salad - with caviar (Or avruga or any other quality fish roe). Cucumber peeled, deseeded cut lengthwise into 6, then into slices, slightly salted for a couple of hours to firm, rinsed then dried in towels. Mixed with just enough Crème fraîche to bind and then formed into 2" to 4" ring molds and left to chill. Just before serving place a good heaped teaspoon of caviar on top. ---- Sauteed King scallops with lemon risotto (made with fresh homemade chicken stock) or Butter poached lobster. (Yes it is very good) ---- Wagu beef - if you can cook it well it's fantastic. With jersey royal new potatoes and a dressed green salad. Or Roast Poulet De Bresse, with jersey royal new potatoes and a dressed green salad. ---- Cheese:Cheese: Epoise, Manchego but there are many fine dutch cheeses out there just pick a small but good selection. If you want to try new things then (being from the UK) try Cornish Yarg, Stinking Bishop and a good Wenslydale. As for puddings - Not really a pudding guy but summer pudding with fresh cream always works for me. If you want something more adventurous you could try:- Pears poached in red wine with cassis and, with basil bavois or Pineapple carpaccio in a light Sichuan pepper jelly with basil sorbet. or Sage panacotta
  16. I've not found any commercial jarred truffles that are worth the money. Hmmmm Summer Truffles - what season is it........
  17. 4. Covered with film in bowl or sealable plastic container. 3. Plastic bag tied. 2. Ziploc. 1. Vacuum packed.
  18. I'd second Bacchus for and interesting meal in London. Also if you really want to go for it then the fat duck is a quick train and taxi journey from London, easily be done if your staying in London. Also as a contrast to MG you may want to try St John or St John Bread and Wine.
  19. Is there a UK or EU link for samples or are they happy to ship from the USA ? Would love to get my hands on this stuff to play with.
  20. You use soap to clean grease off a pan so why not use the same technique for food. Soap is an emulsifier that works for pans so an edible emulsifier should work for food - you could try to dissolve some lethicin (or another - maybe not egg yolk LOL) in the water and then use that to wash your oil coated spheres? Not tried it, just a thought before I hit the sack.
  21. This makes interesting reading:- http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/app2.html However it does not cover the viruses but see here or google http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00085.html The most common such as norwalk can come on quickly but normally between 12-24 hours. The only way to know for sure is to have a stool test that can rule out the bacterial infections. If it's viral it could be something picked up of a door handle, one thing to watch especially with norwalk is to not go back to work even if you feeling well as you can still be infectious. As a minimum you should stay off for 3 days (even if you feel better after 24 hours) and be very conscientious of hygiene for 3 weeks. In the UK where health care is free it's normal for dr's to ask for a stool sample to be tested if the symptoms have lasted for more the 48 hours. I feel for restaurants, as often the last place eaten is the first to blamed when it could be from a restaurant days before, or a quick onset virus of many other things. Also to blame is the "work ethic" that makes people go back to work when they feel well but when they are not infectious. It really gets my goat when people (Either due to misjudged employer sick pay rules or a sense of duty) struggle in with colds (not flu - as you can't move if it's real flu) and infect the rest of us. so we then look bad if we don't come in and infect more people.
  22. Sorry to jump in here - how long will activa keep for? As a non professional a tub of chemicals from say Texturas should last me for life - except for things like Lethicin that goes rancid v quickly once exposed to air. Enzymes such as activa also go off quickly - any other home/experemental chefs out there who would be up to split a pack into "play" quantities?
  23. Have you thought about just aging the brie, most stuff has been chilled and has no taste, leaving the brie out for a few days at a cool temperature can do wonders - don't know if that with work with the food inspectors where you are, but perhaps a small fridge set to a higher than normal temp could work. Ok you get a few days before you can use the brie but the taste of a ripe brie means you can use less. Don't spoil a good thing, up the price or reduce the size. If you think that price would be a killer then see what happens if introduce another lower priced version "with brie butter or mayonaise" and see what the customer goes for. If you weren't in the USA you could use 1 teaspoon (or drop) of ripe Epoise per pound of butter or mayonnaise ;-)
  24. This may work, it has for me with other things but not tried it with wine. Freeze your wine in moulds or ice cube trays (you will need very cold freezer to ensure the alcohol freezes). Make a calcium chloride solution and chill. Drop in your frozen wine from the moulds, then transfer quickly back to the mold a freeze. The idea is to have the surface impregnated or coated with a layer of calcium chloride. Drop the frozen wine into the alginate bath, the calcium chloride on the surface should cause the alginate to gel. A twist on what I did here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=116055
  25. You tease, n ow you've got me thinking - could it be done ....... Ok first thoughts - you'd need a mould to get the wave of the yin - yang (or some carving of hemispheres) but also still retain the sphere shape when the halves are put together. An alginate barrier would not be stiff enough to hold the wave so perhaps painting layers with Gellan or possibly Agar Agar to build a barrier between the two halves could let it keep the wave shape (But then a stiff gel in a sphere may not make good eating) Anyone else have any ideas ?
×
×
  • Create New...