Kouign Aman

I suspect the mystique came from wood or coal burning ovens, that had drafts, uneven temperatures, etc. And possibly from people who had insufficient stamina to hand whisk the eggs to the proper aeration. My current oven will produce a lopsided souffle - its got a terrible temperature gradient in it. But other than esthetically, its a perfectly good souffle. 1) if the recipe calls for cream of tartar, use it * 2) relax, be happy. and dont over mix. Under is better than over. 3) not to be obnoxious, but I made my first souffle before I was a teenager, and I've never had one fail. They are not rocket surgery, if one has a decent oven and a good way to whip eggswhites. *my dad forgot to. Gran Marnier flavored omelet is .... ok, but not what he had in mind.

Spill a cup of stock on a book, and you can dry it with a towel, a fan and a curse or two. Worst case, one book trashed. Spill a cup of stock on an ebook, and you could lose your whole library. There is indeed room for both, and I dont like e-things in the kitchen, tho I like them near it.

Oh Rebecca, how cool! I think divalasvegas pegged it. My husband hears in color - music and some words/letters. I'd rather taste in color, if I had the choice. Closest I can get is that there is a flavor "red" - its that generic flavor of red candy. Seriously re the ube, can one get it frozen in the US? I suppose I could go on odessey (grammar?) to my local (or one of the many local) asian markets and look for myself. I suspect I will have better luck finding it if I know its likely to be there tho.

Wasnt planning on getting new pot holders, but ... Kinda want these ones....Thai Elephant pot holders With two elephants to help, ANYone could lift up a full cast-iron cassolet pot!

Ube - get that frozen? When I was in Jr High School, we had a class wide baking contest. Someone brought a 3 layer Red White and Blue cake. Jr High kids eat EVERYTHING sweet, but.... there were little plates all over, crumbcovered and empty except for that blue layer, just sitting there, all on its untasted own. The blue reaction is the biggest reason I want to grow my own garlic. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Blue garlic on purple potatoes. Rainbow potato salad: Yukon gold and purple potates, peeld and boiled. red and orange bell peppers, roasted and peeled and chopped. green onions Pickled fresh garlic, made in a house that has copper pipes. Kalamata olives for a bit more purple.

5-min a day bread, sliced, laid into melted butter. (That loose structure holds a lotta butter. Almost competes with crumpets). Topped with smashed softboiled egg, salt, pepper. Fold, eat, repeat. Pause, to feed child a nutritious breakfast. Take child to birthday party. Eat all the gumballs off the child's cupcake, just for the sugar. Bring child home. Eat snack. Deprive child. Snack = almost healthy (I'm so ashamed of this break in the pattern of the day). Toasted flatbread, hummus, sundried tomato/garlic 'pesto'. Vast glass of kahlua and milk with a heavy cream floater. Set table with sliced apples on plate, bowl of Trader Joes Black Pepper potato chips*. 1 pt onion dip (made during earlier dietary deviation). Child says 'can we share both these snacks together?' (Yeah, like I'm gonna eat any apple today. ). 'Sure honey, we can share. Just watch your fingers...... '. Make cocoa for two. Mine has heavy cream in it. And extra chocolate. At end of day, there was maybe 1 cup of dip left. Chips????? Are you kidding? *Yes, these are a knock off of the Kettle version. Sturdier chip. Kettle has the edge eaten alone, but TJ's can handle DIP and still bring that pepper taste thru. They must use more of the jalepeno powder than the original.

Weights.... yes, that starts to make sense. :the light dawns: Water weighs 1 gm per mL, and one cup is ~ 245 mL Flour weighs considerably less per vol. Ok, it makes sense to me if hydration is w/w and not v/v. Thank you! Perhaps I "need" that slick shiny scale for Valentines day.

Thank you for sharing!!!!!! Nothing! sticks to stuff like bread dough! Now, where did that kitchen trucs topic go? This info deserves to be shared far and wide.

How are you calculating hydration percent? I thought that 1 : 1 liquid to flour = 100% hydration in 'bread language'. In which case, the NYTimes article is written to ~ < 50% hydration, not 75% (3 c water, 6.5 c flour). So, I'm thinking I dont understand how to calculate it after all. Edumacate me, please? I baked a second loaf from the first batch of dough, after 48 hours. Definite mild tang and more flavor. I still misread and slashed too soon, so didnt get full rise, but we had no problem eating the entire loaf regardless! I just started a new 2/3 sized batch, and stirred it into the last 1/3 of the first batch. I plan to let it rest for ~4 hours, then shape a loaf for our dinner tonight. I have high hopes. It looked dry enough at 3 c flour (to 2 c water) so I stopped there. This is fun stuff to play with.

That reads very much like a recipe for paneer. It seems fresh cheese is fresh cheese, the world around.

Took a bit of doing but here is a link to my article. ← I had to register!! I'm waiting for my password to be sent before I can read it. ← I could attach it as a PDF file but I'm not sure how that is done. ← Calipoutine, did you ever get your password? Read the article? Try the method? Does it work, is it good, should I go to the effort to get a password myself? Thanks

Foot taps rock. And if you are a trip-prone person, often the footpedal can be 'flipped' up out of the way until needed (using the toe of ones shoe), or the whole thing can be recessed enough to keep it out of the line of fire. I would think they would be relatively simple to retrofit. I've seen it done in labs often enough. Brilliance to have one in the kitchen. A thing of beauty and a joy forever (as long as you remember beauty is internal!). How many square feet is your delightful kitchen?

...and MY phonetic brain took a very long time to work out where you'd come from with that. I was thinking, "Queen O'Mean? Who goes by that handle around here?" Perhaps Queen O'Mean could put in an appearance with Snaky Boy and Cool Flame. I dig that comix vibe, too! ← ROTFLMAO!!! And here I thought I'd have to wait til the munchkin came up with that name on her own..... Hmmm.... decorate the cake with chromis-lookalikes and see if you can get a rise out of your comic genius son? Or the Man himself? Enchiladas are on the books for mañana. How do you make yours?

How nice to see all that fabulousness and gorgeousness in action! Oh, and the kitchen too! How about Clouseau for the new guy? (He does look a lot like a Barnard tho, with those delightful spots/freckles.)

Thanks very much for the links and suggestions! Cream and butter are good food and are not to be feared. How is the desi ghee different from the browned butter oil? Just curious. Buying it is certainly a timesaver! I made ghee once, from the recipe in TimeLife Food of the World India volume- the process was to clarify butter then brown the remains very slowly. Good stuff. Took more time and attention than I can rely on having tho. Thanks for the heads up re greens too. I've been thinking of planting chard, and now you've given me added incentive. Fingers crossed that I actually follow thru.... (and that I get more of the harvest than the snails do).

Wonderful! Helpful and good reading too! I suspect I'll read it several times as its packed with info. Thanks for showing the larger divisions that sort of bracket the many fine variations in a highly resolved understanding of the cuisines. Time to visit TimeLife and put your words together with theirs!

Perfect recipe to do with those of short attention span (aka "children"). The munchkin greatly enjoyed helping mix up the dough last night, and watching it expand in the bowl during the two hours at roomT. We 'shaped' a loaf and set it in the fridge overnight (plastic wrap loose, on a ton of cornmeal), then baked it straight from the fridge. I too failed to have sufficient flour 'on hand' when slashing the loaf, and had fits getting good cuts (perhaps I need a visit to the eGCI knife course). Possibly as a result of this, the loaf didnt rise quite enough. Its a bit doughy but very brown. No pic 'cause you dont want to see.... Not the best bread I've made but definitely edible. And thats within 13 hours of starting to mix the dough. I expect tomorrow will be much better (if I can wait that long. I may try a second loaf today, to see if part of the issue was the O/N fridge proofing vs 90 min at RT). At this stage, I think it needs more salt, but since the flavor is supposed to develop over the next two days in the fridge, I'll wait and see. Despite less than perfect results, I'm pleased with the recipe and outcome. And really appreciative of all the comments and discussion in this topic, since they greatly aided in following the NYT-printed recipe. The video also is helpful. Wheeeee!

Thank you. I think you've nicely defined one of my objectives for 2008. It'll be a while before I can really dive in, but may I ask you a couple of introductory questions please? Then I'll try to spend some time with the TimeLife book to begin the process (which obviously will take more than one year). <editted to add: if the answers are covered here eGCI Intro course to "Indian" cooking, "nevermind!"!> * How would you list the various cuisines of India? (ex in the US we have TexMex, Southern Style, New England etc ) * And does geography matter as much as religion/culture? * And lastly, since I'd like to start with a favorite dish and work in its milieu so to speak, where does palak paneer fit in? Again, thanks.

Heh. We used "Men's Pocky" as a reward when potty training our munchkin. Left Gramma to sit one day, came home to find a completely confused Gramma...."Pocky was demanded. What in Sam Hill is a Pocky?!".

Yes, but with three yolks, you can get a very 'eggy' tasting pie filling. Its always a balancing act when making a key lime pie too. The sour brings out the sulfur or something.

I've had good success with Granny Smith's. Pippins are too small, tho the flavor is good. I once did a red apple with maple syrup in the middle. Dont remember the variety. It was good. I dont think I'd like it with a green apple tho. I usually fill the core with butter & sugar. Doesnt seem to need anything else. Perhaps I'll try a liqueur sometime. If in a hurry, prep the apple, put it in a bowl, add a little water (a T or so), cover and nuke. Baked apple in < 5 min.

This thread started me on an awful craving. Fierce it was. Got home, ransacked the place, questioned the family and learned (no surprise) that I was the only one who wanted fruit pie. Apple was first choice, but we didnt have enough nor the right kind. Ended up with a 5" mini-pie, raspberry and apple filling. I ate it all. So very good. I'm extra happy because this was the first from-scratch pie crust I've made in decades. (Back then, the crusts I made were soooooo bad that store-frozen ones were much better). I'll need to look up some proportions to improve the next one, but this one came together fast, and tasted much better than Pet-Ritz etal. A big step toward freedom! :happy dance:.

Grand blog, thanks! Gorgeous son. O's gotta a great grin. Yum, fresh bread....

I used to pour about a teaspoon into the palm of my hand, and slowly lick up the crystals. They feel weird in the teeth - harder than salt or sugar - and the best way I could describe the taste is 'meaty'. My folks rarely used their little jar of Accent, so imagine their surprise when it ran out..... Its good in the dressing for a chinese chicken salad, but I hadnt thought of using it in anything else. I think I'll add a pinch when I reheat that lacking-something beef stew in the freezer.

The uses of quinoa are myriad, and it seems someone else likes the appearance of the grain perhaps even more than I do. I like that little spiral of almost white that accompanies each cooked grain. But, I never would have thought of this.....Quinoa - showcased for all the world to see, from The Hunger Site.