gfron1

Caramel Panna Cotta with Bacon Powder & Savory Chocolate Soil

I'm laughing and cringing at the same time. After both of my tasting dinners which used all the toys in my "molecular gast" arsenal, I had diners complain of cramps - not the extent that you are describing, but cramps nonetheless. I assumed it to be the sodium alginate dishes. I do think its possible that our bodies react very poorly to foods they aren't used to.

Kim did one HERE but its not the style you're looking for. Renka did one HERE but didn't list a recipe - might be worth a PM. HERE'S a topic on PB mousse as a cake filling which might help.

That was the first recipe I wanted to try in his book too. I want to serve them stacked on a vertical stick with a mug of something savory off to the side.

I'll get her a restraining order and provide my personal witness protection plan for her continued supervision

I haven't had anything too exciting lately - maybe a nice sheep's Levezou, but I wanted to share what I think is the most beautiful cheese there is: Is she not the sexiest thing you've ever seen?! Cabrales!

You know what I am so taken by in that pic above is the cut lines. They are so damn sharp. I can see that you used a hot knife, but mine are never that perfect. Here are a couple of things from this weekend. First is a chocolate tart from my Playing with Chocolate workshop today. PH's tart shell, a basic cream ganache and a candied kumquat that we injected with a water-based ganache - my cure for the inevitable collapsed kumquat! And yesterday a very nice scone. Apricot, brandy soaked raisins, orange zest and a bit of pecan meal. They were more done than they look in the pic.

There's a ton of buttercream topics linked in the Pastry & Baking Index HERE. You might find a peanut one in the main topic while you wait for replies here.

I want to do a white mirror glaze and I've done it before but I can't find my formula. Does anyone have one handy? Also, I want to spray it on - I know I'll lose the effect of spraying but I want to use a stencil for design. Has anyone sprayed a mirror onto a frozen dessert?

I used to obsess over temperature (you said you needed a thermometer), but I've given that up. bread has a mind of its own. It will be ready when its ready.

Welcome Mike. That does look like a nice loaf. Eight hours of rise seems long unless you keep your kitchen cool. I've gotten in the habit of tossing my loaves in my upper (not turned on) oven 20 minutes before its going into the lower (425F) oven. This has given it a supercharge of rising and has dramatically helped the shape/oven rise of my loaves. If you have a set up that allows that, see what happens. But first, check your room temp. I also do a cup of steaming water and it all rests under a trash bag. The water goes in after 1 hour of bringing the bread to room temp.

When you're disappointed in a great meal that you've prepared because you left the camera at work. I kind of don't even want to eat it now, and nuke it tomorrow and act like its fresh. It can be my own little hunger strike.

Very nice T2C - what was your opinion of the cornmeal cake - did you get it moist or was it more dry like Jiffy mix? Here's mine for the night - Rootbeer Float The description and recipe are quite lengthy so I put them on my blog HERE. This was a lot of fun to make and the base rootbeer syrup will become two more desserts this weekend. Another treatment of it:

At long last, here it is: The description and recipe are quite lengthy so I put them on my blog HERE. This was a lot of fun to make and the base rootbeer syrup will become two more desserts this weekend. I couldn't pick my favorite pic, so here they all are:

That's very helpful. Back to the drawing board. Actually, I'm going to call ACity and let them do the work for me. I'm assuming they might be a bit motivated to find me the right thing.

No need for sighs...what am I missing from your previous comments? Is your concern the coil v. forced air issue? I'm trying to balance cost v. concerns. I'm a very low output business so after crunching my $s, spending more than $3500 makes it a no-profit effort. So looking at that price range, this seemed to make the most sense. And I guess to answer the question about defrosting, because of my low volume, I don't mind doing a defrost regularly (say monthly). I don't plan on having more in the case than I can sell in a day or two. The rest will remain frozen until they need to be moved into the display. Help me out here - as you're suggesting, I don't want to buy something that I'll regret in 3 months. Thanks.

HERE'S what I'm leaning toward right now - a 3' sushi case. Right size and re-coupable price.

I just received my copy and can I say - this may be the first book that does what people say IPods do for them. Its like he was reading my mind. I can't wait to start playing...I'll skip ahead to the Modern menus if you don't mind

I would pull out Herme's Chocolate Desserts for inspiration. Here's an ongoing thread that will show you what others have made HERE.

I'll do you one better. CLICKITY for the recipe from chezcherie. I modified it quite a bit, but she still gets the credit because its a great almond/meringue cake. Scroll a few more posts down and you'll see my all-time favorite flourless cake from the old foodie.

you're just over in Scottsdale. Take the drive and I'll give you one The dessert is finished and in the freezer for plating tomorrow. The last step was a root beer cremieux.

Qzina out of LA on Dec 4 2008: Callebaut 811NV-595 10 kg (22.046lb) $104.20 = .295/oz Cacao Barry Guayaquil pistoles 5 kg (11 lb) $67.14 = .380/oz Callebaut Pure Cocoa Butter 4 kg (8.818lb) $69.72 = .494/oz Prices do not include shipping. These prices have held consistent for the past 6 months.

The short answer is yes. The long answer is, its not the best for the cheese. Keep in mind that cheese is alive and evolving. Its better to properly wrap it and trim the mold as it comes, but for harder cheeses feel free to freeze. Let me put it a slightly different way. Are these good cheeses? If they are nothing too special, then freeze away. If you want to enjoy them as they should be then keep your more special cheeses in the fridge and enjoy them sooner rather than later.

My spouse is visiting his parents and asked them since they lived in Zambia 12 years. A few thoughts. 1. Piri piri is Indian - meaning the Indians in Zambia make piri piri...so it is made there but not by Zambians. 2. Goat relish is very common - as a side for the enshima. Sear goat, add tomatoes, onions, season to taste and cook. 3. Cabbage and tomatoes and onions, salt and pepper, cooked and eaten with enshima. 4. Everything must be cooked over an open fire, preferably in cast iron or it just won't taste right. They universally agreed to this point. 5. There is some dried fish relish but they didn't make it much. 6. Strong black British tea with lots of sugar and milk 7. Almost no sugar in the diet except what goes in the tea. 8. The meat issue...they really don't eat much meat because they're poor, but at special occasions they'll get the goat, chicken or whatever.

In December of 06 I started this dessert...and I'm finally finishing it! It sure has evolved. I'll wrap it up in the next day or two, but yesterday I made rootbeer and then boiled it down into a thick syrup. I drank some tonight in club soda and it was very good. Here's the recipe I used: 1 oz Sassafras root .5 oz Dandelion root 1 oz Wintergreen .5 oz Hops 1 oz Juniper berries 16 oz Sugar 8 oz Brown sugar 4 oz Palm sugar 4 oz Honey 2 gallons, water Rinse sassafras and dandelion in cold water. Crush juniper berries and add along with hops and wintergreen. Boil water and pour half over the herbs. Simmer for a half hour. Strain to get out everything you can. [i had to use sassafras powder since root is not easily accessible due to FDA warnings, so the powder is hard to get out. I tried paper coffee filters, gold tone filters, chinois and ultimately did a gelatin filtration. You may not need to be as picky as I was.] Add the sweeteners and the rest of the water. Let stand until just warm. Strain again. Lot's of boiling And lots of straining...lots!