tan319

OK, this eurotrash site is funny as hell, thank you, Jason!!! I liked this one, from Hesser's review. Talk about a thesuraus(sic?) "A tangy herbal galangal sauce is whipped into a celadon foam." Greyish yellow green didn't sound as appetizing, I guess. But, that's cool. Didn't Gael Greene used to write stuff like this? I want to go to this place as soon as I get back east. This sounds like a really good 2 star place, though. BTW, did Mix get 2 or 3 stars?

Powder or a concentrate? Just juice, maybe reduced? I'm curious about this product and want to try it. I'll be going to my fave asian market later to check it out. Thanks for any info provided~

Sorry, but I think Pichet Ong is worthy of a mention. He's a rising star pastry chef who's being linked to a lot of fellow pastry chefs operating in the same universe (Sam Mason of WD-50, Jehinger Metha of AIX, etc.) who get a lot of ink all of the time. The Post guy got it right. If desserts are worthy of a mention, the person who is creating them does too.

I think I'm with Fat Guy on this one. To not mention Kunz is pretty wack. I thought the Post review read a bit better too. Having said that, this place is where I'm heading 1st when I get back to NYC.

More on the experiments. I made my Marquise today with the butter, chocolate used was Valrhona Pur Caribe 66%. My initial thought was "wow!!! this is really buttery!!! I hit the mix with a little Fluer de sel and that brought the chocolate up. By the time I was piping the mix into my molds, I thought it was all settling in. There was a noticeble difference in the mix, I think a good one. More volume and fluffiness. I'll taste one tomorrow. I'm starting to think of a new dessert with a macadamia nut shortbread, coconut lime sorbet with scotch bonnet peppers that I call 'Fire and Ice' that I've been offering solo (it was inspired by Douglas Rodriguez' cerviche of the same name, I used to work for him at Chicama, in NYC) and something else is going to be needed, something really creamy and smooth, looser. I'll keep you posted.

I've never been to JG but I've seen Izunni's stuff and it looks anything but uninteresting. Is he still the pastry chef there? I'm very interested in hearing about what you had too. Please post more about this.

I wouldn't be able to tell you what the difference is, Wendy, Neil would be better equipped for that (as well as Michael or Steve.) I'm looking at Balaguer and he just says it has a good absorption capacity. I use it for thickening sauces at times, gives a nice shine and a nice viscosity. If you want to PM me your address at work or home, I'll send you some of my Pastry 1 apple pectin so you can play around with some recipes.

Nice!!! It's great to know that something is not screwed up. Now if Mssr. Bau would have thought to mention it

Wendy, I pretty much agree with Steve, although I felt that the 55% percent has something special about it. What percentages are you using most of the time now?

I meant the baked brioche was dry.

Steve, I loved reading about how you and Jose tweaked your dessert menu. Really cool how he understood about sugar and it's appeal. Got to get to your places! Edited to include... even more impressive is the fact, which I think we've discussed before, that your desserts are priced at 5.95, such a bargain to taste the kind of work you're doing. I have a feeling that Paco-jet was paid for a looooonnnnnnnggggg time ago! Congrats to you! And Jose!

Spurred on by the thread on lemon curd, I aqquired a case of Plugra euro style butter. I just started getting into it but I was wondering how many of the pastry chefs in here ( others too) use this style butter and, if so, do you find yourselves adjusting your liquids? I ask because the 1st thing I did to experiment was make brioche. I found it came out a bit dry and I haven't really had that problem before. Maybe the flour here is a bit drier right now or I just had a bad dough day. My curiousity is piqued, would love to hear about your experiences. Talk to me! Thanks in advance

Chef du Jour was a pretty great show. Gale Gand, Ming Tsai, a lot of great great chefs were on there, and they never really dumbed it down. Sure would love to see something like that again. Especially since there's some really great new talent out there right now.

Which type(s) are you going to try, Wendy?

That's what I' found out today, Tim. The tuiles were in great shape, not greasy at all. Awesome!

Thanks, Nicole. I noticed the grease when I was taking them off the silpat. I wiped the bottoms (?) of them and then placed on paper toweling and they seemed ok enough to use. I'm going to try again today and try a longer cook time too. I might make another batch and really burr mix it also.

I made the Bau recipe for his chocolate tuile, which is a kind of very thin, lacy affair. It involves Sugar (gran) Apple Pectin Butter Unsweetened chocolate (cocoa paste) Cocoa glucose water Basically, you melt the butter with the glucose and the cocoa paste. Then add the water and stir for no lumps. Then add the sugar, pectin and cocoa, which have been sifted together, and stir until you get a kind of Bechamel texture. Cool it . I spread it over a Silpat and baked it off at about 330-50 and it reacted awesomely, very,very thin, almost see through, which I loved. The only drawback was that it was a bit greasy, which I thought might have come from me not emulsifying the mix properly. I ended up laying them on paper towels and everything worked out. I just want to make them less greasy, unless that's the way it's supposed to be. Maybe it's just when they come out of the oven the sweat a bit. I've seen other, less delicate, lacy type of tuiles do similar things. It's a great looking 'cookie, though. Thanks for any advice in advance!

That's a pretty important thing Karen S brought up, that I think maybe was assumed, at least by me. Only do it in stainless steel, in fact any acid recipes. I used to carry my own pots with me here, nothing but aluminum. Thanks for posting that, Karen!

Not quite sure what else you want to know about it I think I use a recipe pretty similar to what Neil is talking about above, it uses a lot of butter. To 12 eggs (half yolks,half whole eggs) 8oz. lemon juice and sugar, I'm using a lb. of butter ( a big recipe). I think using the zest makes it less tart, or something. I've found people are strange about lemon desserts or sorbets. I use zest in my sorbet mix too, even though I do strain it. It seems to finish it in a way I can't quite describe, it just seems to finalize it. My sorbet reminds me of a lemon drop, minus the vodka, if you catch my drift. Likewise the lemon creme I make, as far as people seem to like it (can't take it off the menu) because it's pleasantly tart but has a really smooth finish. As far as the napoleon goes, I plate it with filo crisps ( butter, sugar every other layer x 3, baked pretty dark) some bruleed italian meringue on the side, prickly pear,blackberry and blueberry sauces. kitwilliams, have you been to my place???

I went to work today with the question of butter quality on my mind, ie: euro style butter VS. regular style. Since I've been curious about euro style butter lately, I ordered a case of Plugra, which, btw, only was about 10,12 bucks more a case. Seems butterfat content is costing more lately. Regular butter is costing about 96.00 dollars a case now. Re: lemon zest. I dont strain mine out. If you grate on a microplane style grater, it just melts into the curd. My recipe uses half yolks/half whole eggs. It is satiny smooth and indeed, is very thick when chilled. I use it in a lemon napoleon I do at my place. I use my stick blender to beat the eggs with sugar and the lemon juice, very quickly. I use a spatula to stir until it just starts to thicken, then whisk and start mounting my butter in.

Well, to be honest, I haven't made it any other way But, I think by beating in the butter at the end, you're kind of making it like mayonnaise. Probably has to do with whisking in a little air, and emulsification(?) Mine is more like a thick creme. I would be concerned about it being slightly greasy by doing it all together. Of course, I doubt someone like Sherry Yard is making a greasy product, eh?

You should do the butter at the end. You can do it over very low heat too, like a hollandaise. Regular butter should do fine.

I serve a Guinness ice cream with a Baileys mousse and Jameson's gelee. People like it.

This is a great thing, the building paying all salaries while they're closed.

Much thanks, Clay! I'm on it.