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ATram

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Everything posted by ATram

  1. Hi guys, on my last trip to Vietnam i bought this lovely chili sauce in Hoi An that is usually used with Cao Lau. Now the sauce is over and i want to try to make one as close as possible. Anyone know how it´s made? Thanks!
  2. Hi, in my recent visit to the usa i bought this excellent book. I couldn't find it anywhere in my country so i had to wait a little... Anyway, my main problem is that i can't find curing salts here! i dont know why because we have a lot of commercial chorizos and all kind of charcuterie, but no one wants to sell me curing salts! So i was thinking, anyone knows the exact compositions of Insta Cure #1 and #2? I have a friend who is chemistry and could get me food-grade sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, but i don't want to poison myself or other people, so i would like to know the exact proportions. Thanks!
  3. Let's say an american chef visits Uruguay, what would you recommend him to visit and to do? Which have been your most thrilling adventures there as an american tourist? What you think is unique and would impress any visitor? Thanks!
  4. they say that if you add a peeled potato and simmer the broth/soup for a while it "absorbs" the salt excess. I never tried this because i doubt it really works. If i oversalt anything i usually try to play with acids and sugars, or adding more of the main ingredient, depending what we are talking about
  5. ATram

    Dinner! 2007

    Sweet Potatoe & Rosemary Gnocchi with beet sauce My firt attempt of this idea with excelent results. sorry for my lack of photography skills
  6. What about CIA's piece of software i-COOK Pro? Anyone tried it? It's the first program I try and it's pretty good... A litte bit expensive i think for a recipe software (80 bucks) but pretty neat in the overall. Anyone know if The Professional Chef book by the CIA brings this software?
  7. Yesterday a friend arrived home with a whole 10 kilos of jumbo shrimps and since then i have been wondering the ways im going to serve them. I want to serve them as appetizers, dont want to dish them. So im thinking im making something like brochettes and dips. I already have a couple of ideas but any suggestion is more than welcome. Thanks!
  8. i dont know about argentinian, but here you have a source for uruguayan meat that is as good.
  9. Kiwano & Strawberry Sorbet First time using kiwano, and i think it's great. Was a little bit sceptical when i tasted the plain fruit, but after making the sorbet with a little lemon juice it turned out very rich. Sorry for the photo, i'm a lame photographer...
  10. ATram

    Boil those potatoes!

    I started using that method some years ago when Heston Blumenthal told his preference when doing roasted potatoes in this post. I found it better than doing it from raw potatoes.
  11. im getting some new knives and im looking for a good case for them, something like a 7-10 knife roll. In amazon they have a very wide selection, global, wusthof, etc.. and need some advise with them. Any recommendation? Thanks!
  12. ATram

    Methocel

    Vadouvan, as your concern about the food grade of the products i have been digging a little bit and found out that the USP that says in one of the methocel (Metolose SM-15, as stated some posts above) stands for US Pharmacopeia and means that it is "Food Grade". The other two doesnt state that so i guess they are more something like agricultural/industrial grade, so i wont do eating experiments with them. I think that the SM-15 i have is the same or very similar to the A15C by Methocel used in ideasinfood as the number in the names indicate the viscocity grade of the compound which is one of the main caracteristics. If anyone have any experiment they would like to suggest for me to try and document dont hesitate in saying it, i would be excited to test- By the way, if anyone is intrested Biddle Sawyer is the sales representatives of the methyl cellulose im using, looks like you can order online or visit them in their new york store.
  13. ATram

    Methocel

    I asked him about if they were food grade or not and he said he thinks that yes... thanks for the tips s_sevilla, the first thing i tried to do was trying to dissolve it in water in many different ways, with some of the results you describe. I'll try your way of hydratation and see what happens. So far i tried with a disolution of 1-3% wt and didnt get a gel. I'll try with more concentrated solutions later.
  14. ATram

    Methocel

    Ok, this is what a friend, who studies chemistry, could get me from his job: (click for a larger photo) They are labled as: - Metolose SM-15 (methylcellulose usp) - Pharmacoat 615 (hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose) - Metolose 90SH-15000 (hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose) He also gave me some documentation that specifies everything about the compounds. The not so good news is that it has a list of applicable types (as i said before there are more than 20 different types of methylcellulose than can be prepared depending on the number of hydroxyl groups) for different fields and the ones I have are applicable for things like Fire-resistant coating, Paint, Self-leveling materials, Sand ant Tile cement mortar, Thermal paper, Printing paste, Agricultural chemicals, etc..... But im going to experiment with them anyway, as they are innocuous and i got them for free. I'll post any results i get. Edit: I did a quick scan of the docs for the ones that want to give it a read, it has some good information. Download the pdf from <a href="http://s90525316.onlinehome.us/temporal/Metolose doc.pdf">here</a>
  15. ATram

    Methocel

    thanks for the link johnder, i guess it didnt cross my mind to search for the full name of it. Bryan, ideasinfood was the trigger of my curiosity about methocel and the first thing i did was looking in at Dow Chemical web site for my local distributor. The call to them only confused me more, as they told me they had 20 different types of methylcellulose, which are named with letters and numbers, and the girl behind the phone knew even less than me about this product. I guess i'll try to get the methocel used by A. Talbot and give it a try.
  16. ATram

    Methocel

    Hi guys, in last few months i have seen a few recipes with this ingredient i have no idea of: methocel. As they were recipes i wasn't going to recreate i didnt care much of what was it but for some reason im now very curious about it. I did a little bit of research on the net and found a lot of info but most of it was chemistry or farmaceutically oriented, and not much info about culinary uses of it, including egullet. Anyone could describe and give some information of these cellulose ethers in a foodish way? Thanks a lot!
  17. ATram

    AeroGarden

    I dont have any pics of the building process of my garden, but here is the web site i used as guide. I didnt make it exactly like that, but used the general idea from it and made some improvements, like glass box, a pair of halogen lights on top of it, a water heater, and a water treatment unit. The project cost was like 80 bucks but i already had many of the parts at home. I dont recommend the idea of building your own garden if you dont even know how to use a drill, some skills are needed. But after all the hard work having full grown basil plant in a week is a good reward. At the moment im not using the aeroponic as i moved to a house with a big garden and i'm trying organic.
  18. ATram

    AeroGarden

    Last year I saw an aeroponic gardenin at a store and loved the idea, but they price let me down ($800). So i built one. It only took a sunday and about 80 bucks, they arent that difficult to build. The results were just as good as with any comercial overpriced garden. As for the plants, i bought a many bags of 100g of asorted seeds, grow them in germination and moved them to the garden when they had about 4 cm of root. It isnt a bad idea to build one if you have the time and you like to build stuff.
  19. Thanks for all the suggestion guys, but still looking for comments about Chroma knives. Seems like few ppl have/use them. But i heard they were pretty good. Anyone?
  20. Hi, im planning in getting rid of my very old set of knives and I have been doing a little bit of research around. After all the reading and suggestions i ended up with a big mess in my head. The brands i liked the most are global, which i tried and think they are nice but a little bit light, and chroma, but couldnt find anyone around with a set of it to try them off. Anyone who owns/tried them could type a few lines telling how they perform? Also if anyone wants to recommend some other brands, and the reasons, they are very well welcome.
  21. Im still dying to try the tarte grenobloise recipe, anyone could post it please?
  22. Anyone could be so gentle to pm me the recipe of the Tarte Grenobloise? It looks wonderfull and i would love to give it a try. I also have like 10 pounds of peeled frozen pecans from last harvest.. Thanks in advanced
  23. the recipe i have always used for dulce de leche, since i was a little kid is something like this: 1/2 kg sugar 2 lt milk 80 gr glucose 5 gr of sodium bicarbonate Add 2/3 of the milk in a heavy saucepan, the baking soda and half the sugar. Moments before it starts to boil add the rest of the milk and sugar After boiling bring down to minimum and let it cook for 30 minutes. Add the glucose and continue stiring up gently. Keep on stiring and skimming until desire consistency, 2-3 hours aprox.
  24. ATram

    Duck: The Topic

    Nice pic Ann, i'll try to do something like that, a slow grill, droping some orange juice while doing it and serve it with some glazed carrot and onion in orange juice. Or something like that..
  25. ATram

    Duck: The Topic

    Cool, thanks for the quick replies. That 5 hours recipe seems too much... i was thinking something more like an hour recipe. I think i'll grill it, like this. Maybe stuffed with something and a sweet or herbs dressing. Not really sure of nothing, have seen those recipes but dont know what to choose.
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