gfron1

Many of the good oils will have dates on them, but you'll know the taste - it'll be rancid - a bit sour, a bit...well nasty. A good oil will not make you grimace.

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It was oakey. Now that the test batch is done and I we really enjoyed it, I would step up the quality of the seafood, the wine, and get a great baguette to go with it. I also considered some Spanish chorizo.

I made Abra's recipe last night and it was very good. A few notes for the good of the cause. Here were my base ingredients: So you can see I used canned toms instead of fresh - these are great toms and the fresh ones aren't so much at this point in the year, so I think it was a good substitute. We used a cheaper wine just because it was the first time we made the recipe and I wasn't sure about dumping a more expensive bottle in just in case I didn't like it. I used cod, halibut and salmon - even though Abra made it crystal clear that salmon was not a good choice. And guess what? The salmon was the down point of the dish - bad taste and texture in this soup. I would not have minded a few potatoes in the soup or some other veggies, but the richness was enough to make this a meal for me. And Doodad's suggestion of brandy is interesting because throughout the meal I thought that Vin Jaune might be really nice in this soup - but I wasn't prepared to pour a $75 bottle in the pot for soup. Vin Jaune is often compared to brandy, and for a special occasion would be outstanding in this soup! Thanks Abra.

My comment about "real" has more to do with cocoa %. With sugar being the top ingredient, its going to respond much differently than a chocolate that lists cocoa solids as the top ingredient (as you stated).

I would not consider that quality stuff - better than the cheapest, but miles away from the quality of a LeBlanc which I have been known to take shots of. And as was mentioned upthread - watch the age.

I'll definitely let you know and I expect to be done on Thursday. I'll be doing my cheat method - the Orange Exotic, frozen upside down thingy, so I'll have an advantage since I won't need to rely on my skill for making a perfect surface on which to pour the coating.

I can do ivory - not needing perfection. I'm thinking a basic genoise layered with strawberry, coated with celery cream (of course) and coated in this white chocolate topping. Its for a friend's birthday. I just won't tell them its celery and they'll love it. Thanks - I'll give it a go.

And, obtusely, there's your answer. You're not really dealing with chocolate so much as chocolate based product. There are others far more versed than I on this subject - I know Kerry includes a discussion of this in her great workshops. Do a test batch and see what happens. Start with the idea that you are using the most extreme milk end of the "chocolates." (snobbery aside...then lick the bowl with reckless abandon!)

Yes, but that calls for more toys than I have time or money for right now. I'm hoping to do something simple like white choc, cream and corn syrup...won't that work for a decent effect?

I need a white chocolate shiny glaze. Can I use this recipe but substitute white chocolate?

Probably but see what is in your chips. Often times chips are not just chocolate, they have all sorts of added stuff (preservatives, etc.).

This looks perfect! Thank you.

I tried this yesterday - using soaked wood chips in the baking. It definitely imparted a subtle flavor - I used cherry wood. I'm not sure it was an improvement, and it definitely conflicted with my lime curd this morning, but its worth trying again, maybe with a heartier bread.

The short answer is no. In the University area there is a decent Middle Eastern restaurant that's worth hitting. Get your coffee at Milagro - recommended by Kevin Knox (author of Coffee Basics). If you're up for a short trip to Deming, hit Patio Cafe which really does have the best burgers around. And if you're up for the longer trip to Silver City, you get the best of the best - me! I'd be happ to show you around. If you're going the other direction, HERE is another topic on the Ruidoso area.

I'm living between two kitchens right now (my home and store), and so most of my good stuff is at the store. I was baking at home, and the only form I had was a rectangular brick, but I wanted a boat. So I took a 3" circular pastry form, cut the dough into circles, gently folded in half, pinched the two ends, and put my little canoe into the rectangular molds for support. A few collapsed on themselves in the mold, but I was able to get most of them to work.

The only right answer is - good! Actually though, to my liking, I would drop it down to 65% ganache. The bananas were very yummy as is. I really love the taste of palm sugar.

Just playing around with scraps... Palm sugar carmelized banana slices set in 75% ganache in pastry boats.

I have suddenly, unexpectedly and most remarkably been gifted a big bag of various fish fillets. No bones, heads, guts or the like, just fillets. I've got salmon, cod and halibut. That's the good news. The bad news is they're a few days old so today is the day that they must be eaten. Any sure hits - I can get most ingredients at my store, so hit me with your best recipes please!

This one's just bizarre. ...when you wake up in the middle of the night having had a dream/nightmare that you had booked a reservation at Alinea, and invited a group of friends who weren't really foodies. One didn't show up, the other four left one by one to go run errands in between courses since the meal was running so long, and not coming back fast enough so that you were so nervous that it would upset the timing of the server's deliveries, and that you could no longer enjoy the meal, so you make a quiet exit to the bathroom and bolt for the door, but then panic because chef is a member of eGullet and might have known it was you. Ohhh...bad, bad, dream.

Come on Larry - ya gotta give us more than that! Mint soil, mint gelee, mint sauce...what are we looking at here? I had to make a last second dessert, so I made some boats, filled them with leftover lime curd and pushed in a few berries.

Its actually called Total Fage and is available at all sorts of stores. My favorite is the whole with honey.

Someone earlier mentioned the sugar dots on paper. What were we thinking!? 90% of the dots were swallowed complete with paper backing. I also used to dump those giant pixie sticks down in one sitting - wasn't that like 2 c. of colored sugar?

I loved these ideas, but I'm in the middle of nowhere and had no lead time on this one (which meant no kriek). I ended up making a Guinness cake with vanilla panna cotta, super charged vanilla whipped cream all around, sprayed with white chocolate. It tastes great but my executiion was horrendous - good thing its for a friend.