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Everything posted by gfron1
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I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you Matt, but that assumes complete startup, which may or may not be the case. And in regard to freezing, often times freezing enhances moisture and texture, not to mention necessary in some instances for functionality (ie removing the pastry from a form). If we're talking about start up from the very beginning, then any restaurant is deemed expensive - work surfaces, fryers, grills, hoods, etc. Those are difficult to pay off. A bite sized petit four is much more difficult to pay off than a porterhouse, to that I completely agree.
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Lance required a home for three - himself, his coach and his chef. I was not invited to their private party unfortunately. I can say that of the many pros who ate with me they were eating machines, but scarily enough, many ate far less than I do on a daily basis - and I'm a stringbean.
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Ha! Hopes dashed, but 18 quarts is still pretty darn good.
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Check out THESE two topics for recipes. My initial thought on denseness is always more time to rise. Can you give us more specifics and maybe the recipe you're using?
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I'm just finishing my second cup...dangerous for me in the afternoon. I went with a Western style steep following the suggestions above. 1. Rinse for 10 seconds with the just off boiling water; 2. 3 minute initial steep using 2 t. tea and 1 C. water in cast iron pot Impressions of dry tea: I'm used to puerh having a slightly stronger aroma pre-steep than this one did so I am expecting a more tamed flavor. There's a nice sweetness to it. First steep: Aroma is really nice, still tame by comparison which would be a good thing to lperry, but I like a good kick in the chin with my puerhs. The barnyard aroma is more like a well cared for stable to me, again versus the rotting manure that I'm used to. (You can see that I'm typing this as I go). First sip - very smooth. Immediately settles on the back of my tongue with a mellow earthiness that seems to have a hint of mint...maybe wintergreen. A bit of metallic flavor - I filter water through a PUR filter, so this is PUR puerh...my filter should be up to date, but can't guarantee it. Also, it could be from my pot. Not unpleasant however. I think I'm being most impressed by its softness moreso than its flavor - meaning, some teas leave an acidity in my mouth or a bitterness or even a dryness - all using the same steeping tools. This tea is leaving a pleasantness in my mouth. Alright, first attempt complete. I enjoyed it, and have nothing bad to say about it. I will go for a stronger cup on my next attempt, but will do a longer steep on this batch first. Again I want to say that the 7 and 12 year puerhs that I sell have tasting notes like, "reminiscent of the sea," which to me meant that it smells of rotting fish. I find puerhs to be sweet to my tongue but not sugary. Its always been the smell that I have to get past to enjoy the flavor. I didn't have that barrier with this sample. I'm also going to see if I can't break down the tastes on the next cup.
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Here's my molè recipe, including how and when I add the chicken. You can substitute many of the ingredients in here to get your tastes, but I designed this recipe more for texture because so many molès are pastey. 5 dried chiles - in New Mexico they're the NM red chiles 3 dried anchos Toast chiles in dry skillet until starting to smoke and burn. Then soak these in 5 C. boiling water for 30 minutes. I put them in a large bowl and weight them with a cereal bowl to keep them submerged. 1 t. clove - preferrably freshly ground 1 T. freshly ground peppercorn 1/2 t. Oregano 1 T. Ground cinnamon 1/2 Diced onion 6 Diced garlic cloves Toast all of this in a skilled with a good squirt of canola oil. When the onion starts to soften add all of this plus 1 C. of the chile water to a blender and liquefy. 4 T. Lard 28 oz Crushed tomatoes Abuelito disc 1 T. Cayenne (or to taste) 1/4 C. Unsweetened cocoa In large sauce pan melt lard (crisco if you prefer), then add crushed tomatoes, a half of an Abuelita disc, cayenne and cocoa. Whisk until the chocolate is melted and the cocoa absorbed. 2 T. Raisins - I use yellow 1/2 C. Almonds, toasted 1/4 C. Sesame seeds 1 T. Dark brown sugar In blender, add raisins, almonds, sesame and sugar along with remaining chile water. Liquefy. Add to tomato mix and bring to a boil. Right now, salt to taste. When this is all combined, add 6-8 skinless thighs (you don't want any more fat at this point). Bring to a boil, put lid on, turn to low and cook no less than 90 minutes. I normally am busy and simmer for about 2 hours. Cool enough to be able to handle the chicken safely then shred. If I'm in a hurry I use the fork method, if I'm not then the chicken is at room temp and I use my hands which is what I prefer. Again for me the key is using thigh and having enough fat in the sauce to keep it moist. I've not noticed any difference between short and long cookings, nor super hot or hot cookings...but that may make a difference with breasts. You might also try mixing thigh and breast to de-rich it.
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Okay, new thought. What if I sprayed, then after it sets, hit it with a heat gun just enough to eliminate the velvet effect, but maintain the coating.
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That does make sense. For some reason I keep thinking that I should freeze the whole thing and just dip it like you chocolate folks might do with a truffle, then simply shake it off and let it dry.
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I think we're comparing apples and oranges. When I've done dessert tastings at places like Providence they are small bites, typically without much labor intensive decorating. It seems its more about flavor, texture, etc, than frilly eye candy - not to say this doesn't exist. So I would suggest that its less labor intensive than you might think. If I were doing this, I would crank out a hundred bites, freeze 90 for the rest of the week and have 10 ready to go.
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I've been thinking about how to execute that Kit Kat Cake for nearly a year and I think I've got all the kinks worked out with one small exception. A kit kat has a smooth chocolate glaze - matte, not shiney AND it has indented lettering on the top. I could do the lettering with 3-D signage letters which would leave a cavity. But then I have two options... 1. Fix the letters on the bottom of the form and pour a thin layer of chocolate, and once set remove the letters - this option sounds tricky because of cracking and possibly too thick of chocolate; or 2. Fix the letters on the bottom, pipe in mousse or buttercream, freeze, remove the letters and then add a chocolate glaze. I'm leaning toward this option. The problem is that once I've poured or sprayed a glaze I risk the possibility of the letter cavities filling up with excess glaze. So what do you think? What would be the best technique for coating the entire cake with a matte chocolate finish?
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Sorry, I'm getting caught up and I'll get the recipe up shortly. There are many, many types of molè and while mine has cocoa and Abuelita in it, it is definitely not a pastey chocolately molè.
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I didn't know they made crocks that big - thanks for the heads up.
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I only did the red sauce until the last night...funny you should ask. On the last night I had had many teams that became regulars - meaning every breakfast and every dinner plus many mid-day meals. And so on Friday I asked one of the teams if they wanted lasagne or would the fat be too much. They wanted it so I made two - one for another team that I befriended. My lasagne is very popular in town and a bit more complicated of a recipe. After the teams scarfed the lasagne, which I erroneously thought would do them in, I took some extra pasta, heated some ExV, threw in some minced garlic...and this is where the kitchen sink comes in...added the pasta, let it get nice and sizzlin, then some piñones, my cafè basil pesto, meyer lemon zest and Maldon sea salt (still trying to get the salt in them). A huge mound of finely shredded parma went on top with more lemon zest. That was deemed the best yet by both teams. (switching gears) I just got back from the new XMen movie where I ran into a friend who was a volunteer in the race. Apparently the winner of Friday's race (not sure which category but they were important enough to make a speech), mentioned from the podium my pasta as the reason they won the race 3 TIMES! How cool is that! No wonder my crowd was so big on Saturday. That may be the best compliment of all
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I'm a bit rested, and I made the mistake of stopping by the store to finish up my cleaning, and I was swarmed by bikers asking for more pasta for one last meal...nice compliment, but no thanks, I'm off. First, let's see what this topic was all about. We're a small little town that is very remote, but has a lot of culture and events. You can't just stumble across Silver City, you have to make it a part of a trip or the trip itself. So when guys like this show up it has a bit of an impact. Our busiest restaurant on its busiest night might serve 75-100 guests. My cafè, which mostly does lunch will have about 40 covers on a good day. So when officials say that these guys are most likely showing up but "we're keeping it quiet so things don't get out of control, but we need you to be prepared," well, I take notice. And with all of the speculation of whether he would come or not, and last minute wrangling between the international biking community and the national biking leaders, we were told to "be ready." But how the heck can you be ready for something like this? I cook on a regular ceramic top residential range with a single oven. My response is, as always, pose the question to eGullet and see what you can glean. And after weeks of you all sharing your advice, and me watching Homeland Security set up its base camp, and me strategizing with my food reps, and finally a big ass black RV parking out in front of my store (the pics above are from my store's front door), it finally came down to this The race was off and the black and white jerseys were blurring by with some famous dude that people came to see - I think I mentioned that hotels were booked as far as Las Cruces which is 2 hours away. And then there were 39 more moments like these as they did their laps in our historic downtown district. It was truly surreal. I had never seen paparazzi in my town, let alone my neighbors acting like the Backstreet Boys were preparing to do a concert. Surreal. But I missed all but a few minutes of the race because I was back in the hot kitchen wondering how much more I should prep to be ready for a rush, or would it be a slam, or would it be a slaughter?! And that finally takes us to the food. Some of the important info that I learned from all of you: 1. Keep costs to even amounts - I did everything in either $5 or $1 amounts (tax included)...and yes, it was appreciated. 2. Carbs, carbs, carbs...except on sprint day when it was all sugar of any sort 3. Smoothies were okay but not the most popular - too much sugar I guess 4. I didn't make them, but yes, pancakes were a popular request, oatmeal was second 5. Pie never happened, nor was it requested, but my lighter desserts sold best 6. Coffee, but only good coffee...thanks Peets! 7. Serve early, serve often. They want to eat about 1 hour after the end of the race and continue through the night. Quick side note to Rona - thanks for the reminder - I started gulping my OJ - pills were too much to remember. My body is pretty resilient, but since I'm the primary source of income for our store, being ready to re-open on Tuesday is very important. One unanticipated issue came as I unintentionally became focused on the bikers moreso than the spectators. I guess I created it, but I was trying to serve two masters. I set up "Racer Specials" which were very low cost, racer focused foods. I can't tell you how many thanks and very grateful comments I received from the 95% of the riders who don't have food allowance from their sponsors. I like this niche as I don't really need to be a millionaire from this event, while others were jacking up their prices to capitalize. Dinner Output: Day one - 55 pounds of pasta Day two - 75 pounds Day three - 85 pounds Last day - 100 pounds I figured the last day, based on register receipts, to be 125 dinners. By this time we had things down really well so it felt slow to us. We turned away maybe 15 riders. I then put my kitchen capacity for this type of food at 150, but who knows. One big boost was when I thought, "okay dumbshit! why haven't you put your sauce in the soup warmer and crock pots instead of on the stove in a stock pot." Duh. That freed up a burner for two pots of pasta at a time. And I bought pasta based on cooking time - with the caveat that I refused to do spaghetti because I think its boring. Recipes - nothing was fancy, but they all got great reviews even from the non-riders (meaning, you don't have to be famished to like the recipes) - all downsized for your pleasure Pasta Sauce One medium onion, diced 2 carrots, small diced Sweat onion with carrot until just turning transluscent. Add thyme, salt and pepper to taste - for me, about 1 T thyme, 1/2 t. salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes. 1/2 C. white wine and cook until almost evaporated. Two large cans of crushed tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook for about an hour. Taste, adjust and cook until the mobs come to eat. That simple. Salad Dressing - fast, tasty and totally ripped from Peterson's Sauces book. 1 T. Dijon Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 C. Rice wine vinegar Whisk together 1 C. Cream Whisk 1/4 C. Olive oil Whisk. Done. Fruit salad topping - this received more raves than anything else 1 C. Yogurt - drained in mesh filter for at least one hour, preferably overnight 1 T. Pistachio compound...you could probably use pistachio pudding mix for a similar effect Pinch of cardamom ground I put this over whatever fruits we could throw in a bowl quickly - mostly frozen blueberries, fresh apples, bananas, oranges. Topped with some pistachio nuts. Did I miss anything that people asked me?
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Kristi, maybe your answer is related to budrichard's comment. There has always been accusation and suggestion that the pink salt is contaminated. As a consumer and retailer I've seen both sides and feel comfortable enough to use it. I find the taste to be a slight bit minerally/iron-ey when I grind it onto foods. When I used the slab I didn't taste anything unusual with a regular dry cook, but when I did my little steaming trick I did taste the iron.
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We made the NYT for "selling out of food three days in a row." They interviewed me before the fourth day My final thoughts later after a huge breakfast, a nice dog hike and a mimosa.
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I like to really punch the flavor so when I make it at the cafe I bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then cover and steep overnight. I always finish with whatever syrup is laying around from candying (ginger or kumquat typically). I also run through my fine mesh chinois or sack cloth to filter it a bit. Oh, and I bruise all of my stalks really well first.
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Apparently today is all about sugar (this morning anyway). This is the downtown crit - speed. So they want anything with honey in it, many are asking for sugar. No one wants proteins. Smoothies are flying out, even my brownies. Lots of oatmeal topped with brown sugar, fresh fruit and globs of honey. Back to the kitchen!
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I don't think I mentioned that I've been interviewing/trying out folks for my new kitchen position this week - one in particular has done amazing once she lost the nervousness (guess who is in the lead for the position?). Last night I asked if she wanted to take the kitchen over for dinner and she enthusiastically said yes. A few estimation mistakes but mostly on target. I'm off to Wal-Mart to buy even more pasta and wine for my sauce. This is my last-pre event post (not really, pre, but you know what I mean). I'll do a wrap up tomorrow or Monday. The biggest point in my circumstance is that to answer the question of "how much to prepare?" instead of asking that ask, "What capacity can my kitchen handle?" and go backwards. I now know how many gallons of sauce I can cook and hold, how many servings that offers, and then that tells me how many people I can serve. I think that's the only way to prepare for an event like this - that and print a big "sold out" sign. *edited to add that now I'm at my store and guess where they decided to put Lance's RV camp - my front lawn. I guess I'll have the best seat in the house and a bit more traffic than I expected.
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Can this get any more nuts?! We've just confirmed that every hotel room is booked even in Las Cruces (2 hours away). At this point there is absolutely nothing I can do to prepare for the onslaught tomorrow. We went through 85 pounds of pasta tonight. I'm gearing up for 100 pounds tomorrow, but that's about capacity for my little kitchen. I'm not greedy not a masochist so I'm fine with putting up the sold out sign. Edited to add: I just realized that I didn't provide context. Tomorrow (Sat) is our downtown criteria, which is whey hotels are booked even that far away. Folks have traveled a long way to watch this race.
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You can find the original recipe here which I have modified a bit, but the basic idea is the same. The modified version is here. Tonight some reporter from the NYT (Billy something) interviewed me asking "What impact does having Lance Armstrong in town have on your business?" I said, "My official response is 'oh shit,' and my less official response is that we have absolutely no way of knowing how much food to prepare." Ironically, one of my employees called and said she was at the store and asked if I needed anything - I told her another 30 pounds of pasta - the fastest cooking shape she could get me.
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Yeah, I think I got mine about 18 mos ago. I've done small fish, scallop, etc. My favorite use was when I took a few edamame, placed them on the hot slab at the table, tossed a splash of sake on them and covered them with a clear glass cup which immediately steamed up and steam cooked the edamame - high drama value.
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Thanks Jaymes. Next year I won't bother with breakfast. We're doing maybe a dozen a day so its hardly worth disrupting my regular schedule. The ones who are coming in are coming for the free internet and my charming morning disposition. The oatmeal is much more popular than the burritos although everyone is getting one since its "the deal." Smoothies are popular too. For the record, with my low prices, I'm making almost as much in tips - these guys are so appreciative of the affordable, not-jacked-up prices. I'm switching over to my regular sushi routine now for lunch, and those have sold well to the bikers. Tomorrow is calzone day!
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Salt. I had so many requests for extra salt today which makes sense after an 80 mile ride. They're also at the point where they'll eat my desserts - actually they'll eat anything that's not chained down. I went through 55 pounds of pasta tonight and sold out at 6:15 (we are trying to serve all the way til 7). I'll up it to 75 pounds tomorrow.
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I'm still in Lance Armstrong mania so I'll get to brewing on Sunday.