s_sevilla

This conjures up images of all those damned ice-creams they come up with in Iron-chef: Japan. Except for the fact that Uni makes me puke, I think this could be put to good use in a frozen confection of some sort.......come to think of it, a lot of things could be turned into ice-cream and come out at least half-decent. Lobster is pretty sweet, so that could be used, and oysters always have a sexy allure, so if they could be incorporated into a dessert successfully, they could go over well too. Since I consider cheese to be a fine dessert, taking a savory path is a possibility as well. And as a last afterthought.....I particularly enjoy fried grasshoppers, and they're even better when covered in chocolate, and those count as an animal product, right? edit: I almost forgot....mincemeat has meat and suet in it, and I've always had that on ice-cream......how about a reinvented mincemeat?

If you use wine in sous vide, it is best to boil it first to drive off the alcohol. Beef cheeks can be be VERY tough - so you either need very long times, or high temperatures or both. I like braised beef cheeks. I have tried them sous vide and not found a time / temperature combination I like yet. ← I also just remembered that because of their location on the animal, they can have a lot of contact with animal saliva during the butchering process, so it is recommended to make sure they are cooked properly. Thanks for the advice, I'll be braising them in the end, but for fun I'm going to throw a piece in the water bath at a pretty high temperature and see what happens.

I gave macarons a try for the first time.....came out perfect except that the green tea I put in there didn't present itself in the final cookie....I'll just have to work it into the ganache in the center.

I just got some beef cheeks from niman ranch, has anyone tried them sous-vide or is the connective tissue a little much.....as is I'm going to braise them in a reduction of wine and stock.

Mail order from Niman Ranch. I believe Prather ranch meats carries it at the Ferry Building in SF. Also check and see if "The Fatted Calf" comes to any of your local farmers markets. If they do, they might not bring any on a regular basis, but talk to the person working the stall and they will probably bring you a slab the next time they come around. Generally if you ask your butcher nicely they can also get it from their meat supplier.

unfortuneatly last weekend it was a keg of MGD..... the week before, however, we had the honor of hosting a keg of Trumer Pils for a shindig. The brewery is based in Berkeley or Austria....apparently the brewmasters at both Trumer breweries agree they taste exactly the same. Generally, my favorite beer is Boont Amber, and my "everyday" beer is either guiness or Anchor steam beer. Up on the staging block is some Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale, and some anchor porter.

Alice waters is probably on sabbatical...at least that's the last I read in the SF chronicle buzz section.

I'd be interested to see how the "upside-down" part could be updated. As another note, the best Pineapple upside down cake I ever have is not "homemade" (although I have had some very good....and very buttery version). It comes from a box mix, and it is cooked over a campfire inside a makeshift oven my family makes from a cardboard box and some tin foil. The smokiness from the fire goes really, really well with this cake.....and the pineapple keeps the bottom from burning to boot (although I actually like the top being just a little charred). Try it sometime when you're car camping (it's also fun to drag out a 15 liter bottle of liquid nitrogen and make gelato in the middle of death valley, but that's another story in itself)

I put a piece of bacon in once.......the whole damn steak tasted like cured bacon with that in there.....not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely not what I set out for when I started. In that same batch the garlic I added did the same thing. Next time I use it I'm going to blanch the cloves 5-6 times to really mellow them out, and then be very discreet in putting them into the bag. On a side note I finally got my food-saver canisters so I can try some of the compressed fruit from ideasinfood.

Good Job.....The Canteen on the bottom floor, and Fleur De Lys about a block East. I honestly tried to go to the canteen for lunch, around the same time you were in the area, but they were closed for the day.......someday I'll make it.

thanks for the info on the structure, but I was hoping someone would have some experiece with the physical properties of the two. As far as I know, there is only one for of CMC available, while the hydroxymethylcellulose has many different commercial forms based on the number of hydroxyl ions used to substiture for the methyl groups on the cellulose chain. are the gelling and set temperatures comparable between the two? and is the stability of the gel the same?

I just realized I'm using Carboxylmethylcellulose, and not hydroxymethylcellulose. Any experience with the difference between these two forms of Methylcel?

Once you get past the look, fried and salted insects, especially grasshoppers, go down like potatoe chips, and are perhaps much more satisfying. The only things I can recall almost throwing up on recently were urchin roe and nigiri sushi with a pregnant shrimp on it (with roe sac) Things I would never eat again would be chicken gristle. Things I will not eat in the first place: Brains and spinal cord....mostly the colesterol and fat concerns me. Abalone livers----they look and smell like baby poo. Things I always think twice about: liver and kidneys....something always gives me pause to think about it when its primary function in the body is to filter out poisons and waste. Things I like that I find other people generally hate: -room clearingly pungent cheese. -durian -insects -tongue -marrow edit: I don't think I'll touch fertilized eggs, fermented eggs, cheez in a can, or spam anytime soon.

fridge: -apples -citrus fruits green, leafy produce (sometimes with the cut ends sitting in water) -homemade mustard, fancy whole seed mustards. -open mayonnaise -opened pickles -milks, juices, etc. -butter -yeast and sourdough cultures Out of the fridge: -eggs, but usually only when someone has made the mistake of buying too many cartons to fit in the fridge, or if we know they're be used within a few days. -tropical fruits -spuds, onions, garlic, ginger -yellow "french's" style mustard. -vinegars, oils (except home infused) -soy sauce In the freezer: -nuts -bread that will not be used for a few days -puff pastry -red meat, pork, chicken. -open cans of tomato paste -homemade stock

Methylcell is completely indigestible, much like fiber. In fact it used to be added to fiber supplements, but was taken out by the FDA because if eaten in a pure, non-hydrated state, then there was a slight risk of stomach blockage, but as are as I know, no cases were ever reported in conjunction to this. The trick to using it is hydration. If you try to mix it cold you'll get little globs of gel with powder in the center. If you mix it into boiling water, the gel will set and make it a pain in the ass to mix.....so what do you do? Take the powder and put into some vessel, and pour a quantity of boiling water over the powder, stirring vigorously to disperse the particles. As soon as the powder is dispersed, and not a second later, shock the slurry in an ice-water bath, then hold at about 4degrees centigrade until you want to heat it. I've played with it as an ice cream additive and as a replacer for eggs and gluten, with decent results, making a decent hot meringue. I would say you should get a sub gram scale, because it can be a little touchy, although not quite as sensitive as the proportions used in something like sphereification (I haven't acquired one yet and haven't had a total disaster, yet) I get mine from chefrubber.com, about 3.00$ for 100 grams, although I am not sure which form of CMC it is, it works well enough.

maltodextrin is a complex sugar, used a lot in sports drinks because its glycemic index is lower than other sugars (for those who would like to know: The glycemic index is a scale that rates how fast a particular sugar or starch raises your blood sugar in relation to a similer dosage of glucose. 100 means that your body metabolizes it as fast as glucose, 0 means the ingredient has no immediate effect on blood sugar) It has about 10% the sweetness of glucose. I would assume tapioca maltodextrin is the same, but they like to think that because they start with tapioca root that it is a more natural product. You really need a very high fat content for this to work. Any water in the mix and you end up with a slurry goopy mess. Commercially, because it binds to fats and other similer molecules, Maltodextrin is used as a flavor carrier....I haven't ventured to try, but I bet if you put some of this stuff in cold smoking chamber you could get some mighty good smoke flavor in it, and then be able to use that a variety of ways. If anyone knows if this works I would love to hear about it.

they sound fancier than they are....essentially it was meat, potatoes, and soup. The soup was corn and pepper: Corn pureed in milk, steeped, strained, heated, and roasted peppers done much the same way in water. Added spices to taste (whatever I felt like at the moment, but I really just wanted that pure corn and pepper taste), and drizzled with some balsamic and apple juice reduction. The challenge was just getting the soups to be the same viscosity so they wouldn't flow into each other in the bowl. The meat was marinated in a puree of red onion, garlic, parsley, basil, red wine vinegar, and EVOO (lots of EVOO). and seared on cast iron griddle plates. Potatoes were an assortment of new potatoes, sliced thin on a mandoline, and spread evenly on a sheet pan with some EVOO, sprinkled with a lot of fresh thyme, thin discs of garlic, and sea salt, put into at 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until some of the thinner slices with brown and crispy. edit: When I have a lull I do one plating so people can see what it should look like, and then I set up a buffet line for people.........I've learned that 90% of college students out their, when hungry, don't give a damn what the food looks like on the plate, as long as it tastes good, so I don't try for fancy dinners where I plate everyone's food. On the upside, considering how many of the people here have grown up eating out at fast food, I'm sure many of them are at least appreciative of having food on a ceramic plat.e.

To get a richer, fuller bodied, and smoother puree and sauce you should deep freeze the berries first, then take them out of the icebox until just thawed (Still a bit icy), then spin them in the blender or food processor. The main process that makes the coulis better is that during the freezing process, the liquids in the cell walls expands and causes them to burst, the ice crystals also do this and what spun at the just thawed stage the crystals help macerate the berries. As far as sieving, I would just throw it in a china cap and let it take it's sweet time. (search the ideasinfood blog for more clarification) As for the milk question: The reason you don't see any milks or cheeses from anything other than cows, goats and buffalo (and even the latter two can be very hard to come by, especially in the States), is that commercially, it isn't really viable to do so. Cheese itself takes a large amount of milk to produce a little finished product, and other beasts of burden have a very low yield. Cows, goats, and buffalo have been bread for hundreds of years for their milk production, and over the years different breeds have emerged that produce the greatest yield. For large scale production, it just isn't possible to economically make these products from the likes of camels, etc. (reference McGee's "On Food and Cooking" if you want more information)

I'm back to cooking for about 40 people. Last week I did A dual soup and seared bavette with Chimichurri marinade, pan roasted potatoes. This sunday I'll be making a pasta with 8-hour tomatoes, tomatoe essence and herbs, some sort of fig and apple salad....probably going to go simple on it, but I might jazz it up a bit. I haven't decided on any other additions or sides, but I'll be playing it by ear, I have been itching to make socca recently, but I'm leaning toward something not carb-centric. Dessert will probably be some play on the Olive Oil Cake, with a cinnamon infused oil to go along. It's a little bit of a challeng because there is 1 person who is celiac, casein, shellfish, and egg allergic.

I'm glad to hear that chez panisse pleased....I have got to go there sometime, I found out that one of my old acquaintances is now working there as a server and as a procurer.

I'm glad to hear that chez panisse pleased....I have got to go there sometime, I found out that one of my old acquaintances is now working there as a server and as a procurer.

Blaukraut Hunter style steak Spaetzle Herb/veal broth with quenelles of some sort of forcemeat (a little organ meat in there for flavor) Blutwurst Jägerschnitzel in Champignonsoße Sauerbraten Meat with a plum-red wine sauce lentil stew kartoffelsuppe Reibekuchen (potato pancakes) Not really german (turkish actually), but germany has been inundated with shops selling Donner Kebabs

I will never rush in slicing a potato on my Mandoline (at least without one of those kevlar mitts)......its even worse when you have julienne blade in there. I will also never flambe in a kitchen with no fume hood and a dried wreath hanging over the range.

I walked by a place in our gourmet ghetto that does Soca, a kind of unleavened pizzeta made of chickpea flour. A google recipe turned up this recipe for Stout Soca, but the place that I saw does them in a brick oven, rather than frying. Does anyone have any variations or tips to share about these things? Here's the Recipe I found: 12 oz. stout 2 cups vegetable stock 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon fresh ground pepper 3 cups chickpea or garbanzo flour (available at Italian or Middle Eastern grocery stores) Vegetable oil for deep frying Minced parsley for garnish 1. Oil a 9x12 baking dish and line with parchment or wax paper. Set aside. 2. In a gallon stock pot, simmer stock, stout, salt, pepper and oil. Whisking constantly, stir in a slow stream of the sifted chickpea flour. Whisk till smooth- about 30 seconds to one minute - but do not let it boil. 3. Remove from heat and pour into prepared pan. Use a spatula to spread it evenly. Let cool. When set, place in refrigerator and let chill for at least one hour. 4. Cut around edges and turn the pan upside down onto a cutting board. The easiest way to do this is to place a large cutting board on top of the pan, and holding both in place, flip it onto the counter top, so board is on the bottom. 5. Remove the parchment wrap, and cut the chilled soca into sticks about 1 inch wide and 4.5 inches long. In a large deep fryer, place oil to a depth of four inches. Bring to 375 degrees. Drop in the soca sticks in batches of about 4-5, and fry for 4 minutes, turning once to crisp evenly. 6. Remove with tongs to a platter lined with paper to drain. Serve the stout soca with a garlic aioli - terrific with a strong golden Belgian ale.

thanks for the tips, we are starting to stock up on alternative flours and the such.....I'm trying to approach this as a unique way to broaden the dishes and methods I use in the kitchen. My friend's brother is going to be back in town soon, and he's a fairly accomplished vegan chef, so I will try and get in touch with him about sources for good soy and alternative products. I was looking in some of my ethnic cuisine books, and it looks like there are a few possibilities with Vietnamese cooking that I want to try. I'll be taking a look at that book. They might even have it in the library collection here. edit: I've seen people use ground flaxseed as a substitute for eggs, does anyone have any good guidelines for converting and balancing traditional recipes by using this instead of eggs?