gfron1

Absolutely beautiful!

Chufi, that looks absolutely wonderful - super moist! I haven't had very good luck with chestnuts so I don't use them much. Clearly I need a trip to Europe to learn the finer points of chesnuts

As the owner of a middle class, Caucasian owned-run ethnic market, I can say that there are acceptable and unacceptable issues that you bring up. Dust is a never ending battle in our dusty little town and so we're constantly dusting over 10,000 jars and bottles (not fun work). The dented cans are a losing proposition. Remember, that your local supermarket products are coming from a plant in DesMoines. Ethnic products are travelling much greater distances, and so we often have dented cans. I just received a case of 24 British Heinz beans - all but one was dented. As an owner I can claim them and get my money back but I still won't be able to order any more for a couple of months (to justify shipping costs). This gets at the bigger issue (often covered in Trader Joe's threads). While TJs and other super markets are great for convenience and often price, they are limited in what they can carry - your ethnic and specialty markets can get more obscure items but it comes with a variety of price. So to respond to your initial post - no your not a bigot, and you certainly should have concerns with flies and other filth, but then you just need to draw your own line after that. Rob

I've been making most of my cakes in an 9" springform, then I finish them upside down in a 10" springform ala the Orange Exotic cake technique.

Thanks Sweetside and Patrick. The flowers are really easy to make. Take any fruit - I've done the pineapple a couple of times and the nectarines were a first time which turned out the best. Slice the fruit 1/8" (1-2 mm) thick. Lay out on paper towel for an hour to let dry out. Then coat heavily with powdered sugar. Oven to 200 F. Line sheet with parchment paper, place fruit on the paper, cover with a 2nd sheet of parchment paper and a second tray on top to keep them flat. Bake one hour. Once you take them out, let them air cool for about 10 minutes and then remove them from the paper. Here you can either leave them flat, or I push them into a shot glass to get the flower shape. The nectarines (they may have been plums) I put a few together which was even nicer than the pineapple. I want to try star fruit next which may create a tulip. Anyway, let them sit in the shot glass for as long as you're able - preferably overnight. No science to all of this, just play until they turn out the way you want.

Pineapple flowers are the treat of the day! For a dear friend's 85th birthday (on Mother's Day) I baked a little cake. It was fun waking up this morning to see how it turned out...I opened the fridge... Then I added my flowers - pineapple and nectarine... Then the finished product! The cake is a basic genoise, filled with passion fruit curd, covered in a vanilla orange bavaroise (my favorite topping) and then with a mango gelee on the top. It felt good to be baking again after such a busy couple of weeks.

In response to your response to the response...whenever I've done sushi classes, I always have everything pre-cut, BUT I too wanted them to have the opportunity to do their own cutting. So, I had everything that I need pre-cut and gave them some token cutting opportunities. The first time I did a class I cut in front of them (as they cut) and found that it was way too much to manage. Have those magical bowls of pre-cut under the table ready to magically appear just like on TV - waalah! Have fun!

I suggest "worst" This thread makes me laugh harder than anything else!

Thank you for these suggestions...I'll let you know if anything exciting comes of it all.

I made the rhubarb dessert that was made for the President of China - here are my comments in that thread. I wasn't happy with the plating or photo, but it tasted pretty good.

Tonight I finally made my attempt. I followed the recipe exactly but didn't have what I would consider results worthy of the President of China. I used individual dessert rings (3" diameter x 2" depth). I think maybe the recipe called for 2" rings because my doubled recipe made 9 instead of 12. I did fill each with 1/2 C. of batter. My cake was much less refined than I would have expected - it was more in the texture of a cornbread. It also took nearly 35 minutes to bake instead of 15 (I am at 6,000' altitude). I brought them in to share with my office staff - most are Hispanic, non-adventurous eaters (always a good cynical test crowd for me). They agreed that the texture was not great. They also thought it wasn't sweet enough - I usually bring them ultra chocolate desserts. My spouse, who isn't a sweet fan (how did he end up with me?!) liked them because of the lack of sweetness. Minor details: I dressed the plate with a rhubarb and sugar reduction (with a spot of butter). I topped them with the melted apricot preserves - mine were Cortas because they are minimally processed - usually very good, but sweet. And finally, for the life of me I couldn't plate them in a way that I was happy with...but here they are:

I've been trying to find a source for stainless steel manual coffee and meat grinders - preferably the manufacturer not a retailer...any leads are appreciated.

This thread was a savior for me yesterday! I haven't been to Vegas since the Patisserie was opened, and I have been drooling over the pictures in this thread for quite a while. A friend just went to Vegas for a conference and I asked him to stop by and get me something. I told him specifically to get the Exotic based on the pics - but they were out, so using this thread I found a few alternatives - all of which were available and are now on their way back to New Mexico as we speak! Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread!

I did a month long climbing expedition in Huaraz ( a few hours north of Lima), and I lived in Chifas - you could get a huge plate of fried rice for $1US or something more elaborate for no more than $3US. The restaurants in the mountain towns were very rudimentary but always fast and good.

Your photos never cease to amaze me. Fantastic Patrick.

The mango did come through loud and clear. I was worried initially worried that the curd would be too mild, which is one reason I added the orange (which I chose over lemon because I was afraid lemon would be too strong and overpower the mango). This all depends, of course, on which mango and which oranges. My oranges were very sweet, and not biting at all, so the flavor blended well with the mango. === Now, in general, my apologies to the regulars of this thread. I had no idea that my pic would generate such interest. Had I anticipated the interest I would have been much more explicit up front, thus saving us from so many posts. So thank you for being patient, and moreso to everyone for being excited about this dessert - it was really yummy - the only major change I will do next time is make a pistachio shortbread for the base and save the pistachio paste for the flower decorations.

No, I didn't bake it at all - it was a gummy base that had some crumbliness because of the extra pistachios that I added - noted in a previous post.

Oops! I said I had improvised...I took 1 C. fresh mango and pureed it...i thought you could just read my mind. Edited: I just added the change to the recipe on the previous page.

Eeks - I'll do my best since I used a few recipes and kept modifying, but here we go: The pistachio disk was this recipe. But then I modified it a bit by nearly doubling the pistachios because I wanted it to be more crumbly than pastey. Very nice taste and fun to work with on the flower. The mango curd: 1 C. Sugar 2 T. Orange zest - I would use lime or lemon next time 4 L Eggs 3/4 C. orange juice 1 C. Pureed fresh mango 10.5 oz unsalted butter at room temp, cut into tablespoon sized pieces 1. Boil water in pan big enough to set a mixing bowl in without the water touching. 2. Rub sugar and zest together until fragrant 3. Whisk eggs into sugar and then add the juice and mango. 4. Place the mixing bowl in the double boiler and whisk constantly until the cream thickens and reaches 180 F. Its done when the whisk leaves tracks (180 F). 5. Immediately pull the cream from the heat and strain into bowl, rest until it cools to 140 F. 6. Add butter in blender. After all the butter is incorporated, continue blending for 3-4 min. 7. When a bit cooler add some disolved gelatin if you want to mold it (Pierre Herme fans will recognize that this is a modification of his lemon recipe). I then lined my dessert forms with transfer paper, cut the paste into disks and lined the bottom. Poured in the curd and chilled overnight. Very simple, pretty quick, really delicious.

I adapted Pierre Herme's Dried Pineapple recipe from the Gourmandise (p. 49 of Desserts by Pierre Herme). 1/8" thick cut pineapple slice dried in paper towels, then dusted with confectioner's sugar on both sides. In preheated oven (200 F) dust the sugar on a baking sheet and weight with another baking sheet on top. Bake for about 1 hour. The flowers were a fortunate rescue of a mistake. My pineapple slices stuck to the pan because I didn't dry them out enough. So as they were disfigured when I tried to remove them, I had the idea to push the center into a shot glass. The result is actually better than the picture - I have a new camera that I haven't figured out yet.

Mango curd atop a pistachio paste disk with a flower made of sugar dried pinapple with pistachio paste petals (the flower was very fun to make).

Your original story proves my theory and thus my answer! Pie is a social dessert, however, cake is for me. Pie is rarely a dessert best enjoyed by one's self. Only in the group setting can a pie achieve its perfection, that moment when the crust crumbles onto the fork in flaky grandiosity...the fruit (or pudding) oozing lustfully onto the plate...the melted ice cream surrounding its steaming fruit filling. These are moments best shared with old friends and family.

I'll know pastry bag eating has gone too far when I start changing tips to make different designs on my toungue...BTW, if I do any designs that are worthwhile, I'll be sure to post them to this thread!

So now this has become the "What dessert did you have for breakfast" thread I had chocolate pastry cream straight out of the pastry bag for breakfast - squirted right into my mouth. I'm now in the scientific stage of finding out how long it will last before it makes me sick (I made it on Friday).

I see the Apricot and Ginger Loaf cafe and the Suzy's Cake, but I don't see the cocoa cake or the pastry cream. ← Oh man, looking at the pics in that book makes me salivate! I didn't see it there either (they may randomly show pages). I'll get them to you...but I'm a believer in giving the author their due (my spouse is an author) so seriously consider getting this book - super stuff.