gfron1

chocoera- I think that was the first recipe I did from the book and a really fun place to start. Your pics looks great - I hope you have have fun making more and more. The chocolate crust in there is my go to - something like Nayla's crust.

Wow! Damn good lustre!

Tonight I made this recipe again - cut the powdered sugar in half - and liked it even more. Also, I went with a plain crust instead of chocolate and worked in some biodynamic grape must for a play on PBJ. And again, I squirted about 2 cups of the filling from the bag into my mouth. I really like this recipe...a lot.

I didn't take any pics because we were very overwhelmed by a rush of dinner orders that night. With the exception of the papas rellenos, the other items were quick and easy. I brought in two helpers - one for 7 hours and one for 3 - I had lunch to do and dinner prep (we're a small operation - normally I am a one person show). I did the salad the night before - 10 minutes. The papas were the time consumer. I spent 90 minutes on them in the morning during my lunch prep. The other time consuming prep was spring rolls. Fortunately, in a burrito intensive community, I just explained to my staff that they were making mini burritos. All in all, my guess would be maybe 7 prep hours between the three of us with lots of dish washing in between. I keep my staff up on dishes so we spent no more than 1 hour of dishes at the end of the night, but that includes our dinners to go. As far as how much - I look at things two ways. First, number of pieces. This was intended to be stand up food so I figured 1.5 pieces per person per item - 150 of each item. I also look at things by weight. For my dinners I shoot for 3/4 pound per person, but for events like this, I shoot for less than half a pound. There are others with far more experience on this board who can explain estimates better and I would love to learn from them. Platters were just one per item. I used a bunch of risers under smaller platters and I filled as needed, but for 100 people I only had to re-fill my cheesecakes since they can't stack. And set up was no more than 10 minutes. The fun thing was that I had a last minute dinner to go from a doc who was recruiting a new doc, and they wanted to show that even our little hamlet has big city foods, and his house was just a stone's throw from my cater, so I packed up and headed down for quality control/butt kissing. My staff did an Indian dinner having never made, let alone, eaten Indian food before. I was counting on my recipes being clear and it seems as if they were based on the results. I showed up in my whites and the doc and his recruit were very impress that they received such care. BTW, I ate the rest of my papas rellenos filling in a sandwich today for lunch with melted cheddar - very tasty.

I recently had a woman ask to buy lemon curd from me. When I showed her our options including my in-house version (which is damn tasty) she replied, "Oh, I only buy English curds." For me, any fruit jams/preserves or syrups should come from the Slovenias, Armenias, Estonias...etc. So, when you want to get (what product), you have to get it from (what country or region)? (edited to clarify title)

I'm sorry David - I just now saw your question. No, mine have been cut for years with no noticably visible threads and certainly no fraying.

Thanks Erin. The slaw was cabbage and carrot with a dressing of sesame oil, ginger rice vinegar, wasabi and a bit of meyer lemon juice. Very simple since most of the dishes were spicy and exotic.

I just got back from the event and it was a huge success! I was really nervous about having enough food based on how this whole thing played out, and to top it off I had out biggest dinner night ever (we only do hot carry out for dinners). Absolutely nuts day! And I brought it two people to help me, one that I had never worked with before - she turned out to be a rock star! So let's see... -Lemongrass tea sweetened with kumquat syrup - huge hit -Smoked salmon sushi - a last minute addition since I was making it for the cafè anyway -BBQ chicken on sweet potato biscuits - very good but most people smothered the biscuit with the chicken - its a very southwest thing to do -Papas rellenos - the absolute star of the event. I could have made 10 times as many and people would have been shoving them in their coat pockets; I took a flavor risk and it payed off big! -Mini spring rolls - Thanks to eGer Verjuice for getting me the skins -Bulgogi bison meatballs - a bit strong -Smoked whitefish salad (I've never had this before so I made it all up - mayo, pickled mustard seeds, wasabi) -Asian slaw - ginger rice vinegar, black sesame, meyer lemon Tangerine cheesecakes I had easily 50% of the crowd come back to my section to thank me for the food, so it was a rewarding and lucrative event for me. Thanks again for everyone's feedback. It was incredibly useful and appreciated.

By any chance is that the same as Bird's Custard Powder from the UK? If it is, I sell it at my store - never used it, but I sell it.

My puree is on its way and I'll do a trial run immediately - thanks for the super duper warnings. I also think gingerpeachy is right and I've been thinking the same thing. I'm touching base with the bride on a few modifications and making sure she's 100% on board or if she wants me to adjust...kinda like protecting against buyers remorse.

Thanks - its true. I find that if I don't pop them out very quickly the ones at the end of my poppings start to get soft and get messy. Even a better suggestions since I just bought larger molds than I would normally use. I do have the advantage of a pretty hard core freezer - not a blaster, but it takes things below zero. I'll also wear gloves for this job to minimize heat.

Thanks Alana - good to know. And joiei - I've already placed the order, so tanx anyway

Here's the latest. The couple accepted my bid, so we're on. I'll need 90 completed by the 18th. I decided to go the silicone route and ordered enough molds to do each step in two rounds. The outer mold is THIS bavarese design. The inner is a simple cylinder. With that decision made, I won't need to be taping 90 acetate strips. My sequence should be: 12th Make cake and inner cylinder 1st batch 13th Set 1st batch into bavarese; freeze; Make cake and inner cylinder 2nd batch 14th Set 2nd batch into bavarese; freeze 16th Spray for velvet effect two days prior just in case I need to overnight something 18th Transport to event, fill dimple with white glaze, add chocolate disc, thaw and serve What possible mistakes and horrors am I not seeing?

Bucking the advice of folks in this thread, I went ahead and bought a Maytag Precision Touch 750 Series because Sears is the only stove seller in our town and I assumed service would be easier to come by. Well, just as previous commenters have said, just three months after the warranty expired the oven died on me. If this is such a common problem then me thinks I smell a rat! Anyway, the service person is on their way to charge me more money. Where's the class action lawyer when you need them?!

Thanks everyone. I'm definitely in no position to make my own transfers and really I'm not interested in punching out 80 circles especially since the customer is willing to pay. They accepted my bid yesterday which included buying a short case of 1 1/4" discs from American Chocolates which worked out to be .24 per disc for 240 discs and a guarantee that I would have them in hand a week before the event. Good deal all around in this instance.

That turned out great! Congrats Yay! Yay for Nay Nay

i had a minor panic attack thinking about this thread while walking my dogs - please don't attempt to puff popcorn in hot oil - especially if it doesn't have a lid - could be very, very dangerous!

I wouldn't think that a popper would get you a high enough heat v. oil.

Thanks Andie...we'll give it a go. The cake was so moist, without being wet. And yet it had a solid structure. I have people bring food to me all the time to show me how great it is and am normally not impressed, but this cake was really damn well near perfect. I'll see if I can't make it this week sometime and report back.

Okay, not to be a techno-noob...when I google lloydchoc as one word, all I get is eG forums. Does anyone have their website or phone number?

thanks. And Alana, I showed the pricing to the customers and they said, "Oh, that's not bad" which gave me a clue as to what range I could price my pastries They would need to buy 1000, so I suggested they make little gift bags with a business card sized note thanking their guests for attending along with the extra chocolates - they loved that idea. And as for the design...1) my piping skills are not where they need to be and 2) it is a very intricate monogram.

I know that American something or other in Atlanta does them, but I have an event that conflicts with their vacation schedule. Are there others in the US that are doing custom wafer? This will go on top of 80 pastries I'm making for a wedding.

Just like rice krispies, except every grain is going to be slightly different. The wild rice looked like small maggots, but the texture was the same. The Thai sticky rice barely looked puffed, but was soft. That's why I'm interested in this - there are so many different applications based on what you're puffing.

I want to steal a recipe. Really, for the first time ever, I want another pros recipe and she won't share it. It was a flourless chocolate with Kahlua. Knowing her, she found it in a magazine. Does anybody have a recipe like that? It may have been the best flourless I've ever had, and up until now I've sworn by the recipe from theoldfoodie.

Okay - first, I did this for the first time using the Alinea cookbook recipe for savory granola. Take your oil filling a pan with at least an inch, and bring it to the point that it shimmers (there's a specific temp, but I haven't worried about that - I just toss a grain in and it either puffs or not). Next dump in the rice/grain/hamster and they will puff almost instantly. Skim them out of the oil and dry them on a towel. The puffing takes seconds, the heating takes minutes. That's my version and the way that Alinea handles it at least in the one recipe. Larry's version is described above and involves a bit more.l