gfron1

Welcome Chef Eureka! It looks like a post above where we believe a blast from an air compressor was used to spread the cocoa butter. BTW, in the past I've tried this technique and my compressor wasn't strong enough so I used canned air (the stuff used to clean inside keyboards). I didn't serve those because I vaguely remember there being a chemical involved.

Let me back up. I want to align myself with a small number of perfectly fit organizations with whom I can make my charitable contributions. The wolf center is one of them. In New Mexico I was in the heart of where wolves are released, including wolves from this center, and I gathered from wolf ecosystem for nearly a decade. It's a perfect fit for me to be with these guys. For the menu I had expand beyond what wolves eat (obviously), hence the ecosystem idea: 1. Flavor of the Forest: Cocktail slushy of foraged plants harvested this week and finished with bergamot shrub and spicebush blossom vinegar, finished with bergamot salt (This has become a recurring thing that we do - create an opening drink of items foraged that week, so guests truly can taste what is forageable right now.) 2. Rhubarb poppers and salted rhubarb sauce, goat cheese mousse, pickled cattail stalk 3. Seeded crackers with Apache red grass and amaranth, Chicken of the Woods paté, cattail pollen, wild onion blossom 4. Nettle fettuccini, duck confit, mustard & onion sauce, maitake salt, pickled yucca, wild mustard infused oil 5. Woodear mushroom, trumpet mushroom honey, redbud caper, redbud jelly, pork terrine, kombu beans, lichen rye bread 6. Venison tenderloin, apricot/grapefruit molé, roast vegetables from farmers market, pickled onion bulbs 7. Hibiscus sorbet, violet sorrel sugar, sumac macaron I really wanted to serve rabbit but haven't established my source relationship yet. Working on it since rabbit was my go-to protein back in NM. We also tried out some new language on the back of our menu this time: And thanks @Anna N. I've learned to not need fancy shmancy equipment...except I did order the new centrifuge At the end of the day don't we just need a little heat and a little cold from time to time?

Latest update: Really nothing to report - we found a perfect building but it needs two or three tenants, not just one. The developer thought he had all three tenants on board, but the other two weren't as solid as thought, so now the developer is holding until he can have more leases signed on the day he purchases the building. My broker is beating the bushes for new tenants, as am I. In the meantime, i continue to do pop-ups. Last Sunday was at our Endangered Wolf Center where I did a Eat What the Wolves Eat dinner highlighting the ecosystem of wolf habitat. Fun dinner, and had a couple fly in from Houston just for the meal. This was the "kitchen" we worked out of. No running water. 2 induction burners. 2 blenders. 1 cutting board.

This convo is turning to a larger debate, but I too would just finish it on a ceramic rod to knock it down a bit. Still very sharp, but not razor sharp.

This one is similar although not the same. Mine is aluminum and no fine mesh, only the wire mesh. But don't get stuck on the tool - there are countless objects out there that can serve as templates.

instagram.com/chefrobconnoley/

This one is spraying through a standard cooling rack laid on top of my mold: Yellow backsprayed white This is the one I mentioned: Yellow sprayed through Asian mesh strainer, backsprayed green.

I know I didn't post it there. And I see my pics on the other thread are mostly dead links - damn! I'll go dig it up from Instagram and upload the picture properly.

yeah, I have no idea where those would be. My guess would be the showroom finish thread. And to answer your question I tried to replicate and got pretty close. Very delicate tap to spray with nozzle shoved in tip.

Right now are the staples - cattail stalk, chicken of the woods mushrooms (cinnabars and chants are starting to appear), wild strawberries (ground not tree), and I'm preparing to explore gum trees...I think I'll be able to tease a liquor out of it ala nocino. Time will tell.

On my trip a few weeks ago I enjoyed my meal at Flores, Petit Crenn, Namu Gaji & Frena bakery. All are really good. Crenn of course was spectacular doing the chef's extended menu at the bar. I ate at Flores for the tortillas. Namu was all about the okonmiyaki. And Frena was a great breakfast for shakshuka basket.

Yes, your summary is correct IMO. I just go in a 475º oven.

@pastrygirl IDK what your commissary partners are doing but I've never had smoke come from my ash making. You don't cook to "oblivion." You go til dry and dark. There really is a difference between what we are calling ash, and burnt. To answer your main question though, ash adds an elemental, earthy, subtle flavor tinged with the base produce. I prefer it with acidic or tangy foods to offer a counter balance. I would never serve it, for example, with banana bread. That doesn't make sense. But goat cheese, pickles, vinegars...great addition.

When ashes are used in modern cuisine, if the chef is doing it right, the carbonization is stopped right before it turns to ash keeping some of the base food's flavor. Leek ash is the most used and it should maintain a leek flavor. But as others have said, old trick.

I don't think you move it at all. Too cumbersome and the you lose control of the spray.

2nd one is a light white spray to create matte effect, with various speckles and swipes in red and white underneath.

Got it on the first one. White spray through Ateco Tip #33, then regular finger swiped swirls. You may remember when I was spraying through all sorts of gadgets and tools to create stencils. They always gave fuzzy effect like that and slightly warped spray since the stencil wasn't against the polycarb. Thanks for creating this topic. Love it.

Sorry about that delay. Life has just been so topsyturvy lately. I love grains so I had high hopes. But I don't think this prepackaged mix is the answer for my cravings. Might feed it to the birds - they don't care what language the package is in.

I followed the instructions that liuzhou translated and it was fine. The fact that I didn't make it a second time may say something. The range from oat to millet just didn't work because of how long each would cook to get to a perfect consistency.

Deals in. Deals out. New property. Property gone. Enthusiastic landlord. Batshit crazy landlord. I can't wait to tell the story of all of the things we've been going through to find the best property and secure the lease. In the meantime I'm focusing on what I do best - building relationships with likeminded people for future partnerships. Oh, and it's morel season!

Last night I held another popup. This one was for the filming of Feast TV - a regional food show. My sous and I are getting better at each meal, and it was fun telling my story for the cameras. Show will air in June.

This year is going to be all general scouting as I learn new spots and the new seasons. What I'm most interested in right now is what lands are safe to harvest from in terms of pollution, and part of that is reading the history of a space to see what has happened previously on the land. For example, I found a nice park that apparently was a superfund cleanup site in the 80s and 90s. That's obviously a no go. So that's my first priority. Second, is learning the new plants. The one above is a good example. There was sufficient amounts of it that I could consider harvesting but I had never seen it. I took a picture and got it identified - this one was easy because it's all over the Missouri Native Plant Society facebook page right now - and will now go back tomorrow to harvest. In the meantime I've consulted my books including my book on Native American medicinal plants which might give me warning signs. This was not listed so I feel safe moving forward. But to your question, New Mexico was not known for morels. I found them once in the nine years i foraged, and those were burn morels in early June. My knowledge from foraging in Minnesota is to look for dead oaks as a starting point. Here in Missouri I've heard a lot about southside slopes. If you're interested in learning more, find your local mycological society facebook page and watch what people are posting. They won't say where they got them but you'll learn seasonality and get help with identification.

Morels are literally days away from my in St Louis...They've crept up to lower-mid Missouri over the weekend. So i went scouting this morning and found the motherlode of Virigina Bluebells (ertensia virginica). Edible and some say they have a slight oyster flavor.

I was going where Jim went with canneles. First, no I wouldn't do it if flavor is what you're going for. But, it did make me wonder about a baked donut where the mold is brushed in wax ala cannele. That could be interesting.

I made some rugbrød last week and had leftover rye starter and a bunch of soaked grains and seeds. I forgot about them and left them out and they all started sprouting and then fermented. I gave them a quick grind and threw them into my whole wheat formula using the rye starter and ended up with a really tasty, chewy loaf that I've been enjoying for my toast.