nightscotsman

You could make Jacques Torres Champagne Truffles.

Hey - great to see more people may be able to make it on Friday. I was planning on getting there between 11:45 and noon, but like I said, it's a buffet so if you get there earlier please don't stand on ceremony - go ahead and start. By the way, I may have photos to show from Chicago, and I brought back menus if anyone wants a look.

What kind of baking do you like to do? Cakes? Bread? Pies and tarts? General desserts? Do just want basic, family-style recipes or are you looking to challenge yourself with some more advanced stuff? If you're looking for a comprehensive resource with a wealth of technique and background info, a good investment is The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. It may seem a little intimidating because it's so big, but don't let the "Profesional" part of the title scare you off. Oh, and Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan and Julia Child is also work a look.

I love my Swiss-made Bamix emersion blender. It's different from the other domestic models in that it has more open diverter "fins" at the business end to create the correct liquid vortex that a good blender should produce. It also comes with interchangeable blades for whipping, blending and pureeing.

A couple weeks ago I invented a cocktail that included tamarind juice for an article Mamster is working on for the Seattle Times. I don't think it's been published yet, so I don't want to blurt the recipe out here just yet.

That was my Mom's method, too - crisco and a pastry cutter. Her crusts were always perfectly flaky and tender, though not much flavor. Bernard Clayton also recommends the crisco/butter combo method, but I usually use Martha Stewart's recipe from her Pies and Tarts book which uses all butter. You can enhance the tenderness of an all butter crust by using about a third cake flour to two thirds AP.

I think if you can get there earlier (they begin at 11:15) you might get to choose from a few more dishes, though it changes constantly during the two hour serving period. Since this is a buffet I suggest that people show up when they can and not wait for others to arrive before loading up at the trough... er, I mean making selctions and beginning their meal. Glad you can make it, Klinkster. Sorry we won't see you, mam.

Heyjude and I are going to SCCC for the all-you-can-eat buffet this Friday. It's $6.50 and they usually have a huge range of offerings that constantly change during the meal. If you would like to join us just show up at the Square One Bistro located at the back of the caffeteria in the middle of Seattle Central Community College on Broadway - 12:00 or a little before. Be sure to wear loose fitting pants.

That was hilarious . Hmmm.... Peeps... smoking.... Hey Klink!

Monotype Garamond is for tourists. A true design geek would have a custom version of Garamond designed like Apple did (and now sadly appears to be abandoning).

"Shunju: New Japanese Cuisne" by Takashi Sugimoto and Marcia Iwatate is absolutley gorgeous. Seems useful, too, with a visual glossary of Japanese ingredients in the back and step-by-step photos of prep techniques.

Finally, new menus from SCCC. Sorry these are so late, but I just got them this morning - even though they started last Tuesday and only run through this Thursday . Anyway... One World Menu February 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2003 Soup and Salads Salad of butter leaf, candied walnuts, balsamic dressing, Carbrales & caramelized pears - $2.00 Soup of the day - $2.00 Mesclun greens with orange Supremes, fresh herb dressing - $2.50 Roasted Red Beet & Watercress Salad with Ginger Dressing - $2.50 Appetizer Sunchoke Ravioli with Lemon-chervil Beurre blanc, curried potatoes - $5.25 Entrée ...served with a cup of soup or salad... Sake Marinated Opah, sautéed potatoes & leeks, shimji mushrooms, soy-ginger sauce - $6.95 Olive oil-lemon roasted Baquetta Bass with tomato-cumin sauce, saffron rice pilaf - $6.45 Leeks Provencal stuffed chicken breast, sautéed spinach, Fleurette sauce - $5.95 Spanish Pan-Roasted Shrimp with Pernod, cilantro-fennel salad, served tableside - $6.50 Square One Menu January 28th - February 6th, 2003 ...served with a cup of soup or salad... Luncheon Antipasto Marinated & Roasted Vegetables, Baba Ghanoush, Fresh Mozzarella & Coppa - $4.95 Grilled Duck Breast With Tart Cherry and Sage Sauce Celeriac-Potato Puree - $5.75 Beer Batter Tempura Oysters with Sauce Remoulade Savoy-Bacon Slaw - $5.25 Bourbon Marinated Flank Steak Steamed Jasmine Rice & Grilled Fresh Pineapple - $5.75 Fresh Ricotta Ravioli Lightly Smoked Tomato Sauce - $5.50 Pistachio Crusted Mahi Mahi Apple Cider Beurre Blanc & Rainbow Chard - $5.95

Peephenge and Lord of the Peeps: the Fellowship of the Peep (yes, there is video) By they way loved the Peep surgery.

I don't think they have a bar - it's a very small place.

Blue Cheese Ice Cream: The texture of this one was really luscious and remained smooth and crystal-free for several days in the freezer. 2 cups heavy cream 1/2 cup whole milk 4 egg yolks 1/4 cup sugar 3 Tbs corn syrup 4 oz. blue cheese (the Australian stuff we used was really good, but for this I would recommend Stilton for it's mild, rich flavor) blend together cheese and corn syrup util smooth (immersion blender is great for this) - set aside. bring milk and cream to a boil. whisk together egg yolks and sugar and slowly whisk in some of the hot cream to temper. pour eggs into cream mixture and continue to cook over medium heat until thickened slightly and it coats the back of a spoon (like creme anglais). Off heat whisk cheese and syrup into hot custard until smooth, then strain through fine sieve into a bowl. chill until very cold and process in ice cream maker. The fig compote was kind of made up along the lines of: roughly chop a couple handfulls of dried mission figs. put them in a sauce pan with ruby port and red wine to almost cover. add a couple Tbs of sugar (or less, depending on how much port you use), half a stick of cinnamon, half a star anise, a couple strips of orange zest with a clove stuck in one, and maybe 10 black pepper corns. simmer until the figs are soft, but not falling apart and the liquid reduces and gets syrupy. As for the maple-pineapple ice cream, I thought the flavor was really good, but I would like to work on the recipe to improve the texture. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Count me in as a Seagram's fan. It's my gin of choice for cocktails as I find it has a nice affinity with citrus flavors. Here are the tasting notes from F. Paul Pacult's "Kindred Sprits": Clear; one of the more individualistic noses in the gin category - highly pronounced, come-hither, distinct orange-peel, cinnamon, and lilac qualities hold court over other fruity compontents - I greatly admire the off-dry bouquet; unquestionably the fullest tasting of the domestic gins; the orange peel and cinnamon carry over onto the flavor, then a nifty, spicy hint of coriander develops in the stone-dry finish; best part of this handsome package, though is the fleshy, fruity, full-blown nose; little wonder to me why this is one of the most popular distilled spirits in the U.S.; perfectly good on-the-rocks or in a cocktail. RATING: *** (three stars out of five) Recommended. I find Tanqueray, while perfect for gin and tonics, to be overpowering and overly junipery for more nuanced cocktails. But then I'm not really a martini man, myself.

I would suggest slicing them a bit thicker - about 1/8-1/4 inch - and put a cover on them for the first few minutes to get them sweating before they start to brown. And don't stir too much. Let them brown a bit, stir, brown again, stir. It's OK to deglaze with a tiny bit of water, just remember that all that water will have to cook off for browning to resume.

Cool, cool, cool! Can I assume we will be able to create our own personal cookbooks by both submitting our own recipes and flagging/including recipes that others contribute? Sort of like "My Favorite Recipes"? A few other pie-in-the-sky wish list features: - The ability to indicate ingredient amounts in both volume and weight (cups and grams) simultaneously. - The ability to scale a recipe (1/2, 2X, 1/4) - A field for special equipment needed (baking pan, tureen mold, madoline, deep fryer, smoker, etc.) - recipe categories (appetizers, cocktails, entrees, vegetables, desserts, etc.) Of course it looks like what you've built will be wonderful even without these extra features. Thanks so much for taking this on!

I've only eaten there once, a few years ago. It was easily one of the best meals I've had in Seattle. I didn't take any notes so I can't recall what the hell we ate, but I remember it being not overly complex, nicely ballanced, clean flavors, artfully minimalist presentation. The service was very European - friendly and attentive, but not overly so or pushy - and the general atmosphere was formal, but relaxed. I've heard some people complain the service is cold and uptight and the chef has big ego and is dismissive of diners requests, but we had no problem with staff behavior or with letting the chef serve dishes as he felt best.

So are fruit and vegies caramelized since they have little, or no, protein?

It's my understanding that browning and caramelization are basically the same thing. When you brown something - beef, for instance - in a saute pan, it's the sugars in the item that are caramelizing. Sometimes it takes the application of heat in order to break down other chemical components into sugars that will caramelize (brown), like onions. Vitually everything that grows contains sugars of some kind in varying quantities. Now watch, some smug scientific bastard will come along and expose me for the technical charlatain I am.

Absolutely! Among other things, sugar contributes to structure; when creamed with butter it acts as a leavener; it causes baked goods to retain moisture; when whipped with egg whites it stabilizes the foam and helps the protein remain flexible; caramelization adds mucho flavor, not just color (just like browning meat); used properly, sugar is a flavor enhancer like salt - and that's just in baking. These are just examples off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many others I'm missing.

Speaking of Japanese chips, I just ran across these whilst browsing J-List.com: Yes, they are cheese flavored potato chips with images of Hello Kitty and Tweety Bird printed on them. What more can I say?

Just did a quick search on Download.com for recipe software for Macintosh and got 11 hits. All are free to download and try with very low purchase prices. Check it out.

Great to see everyone at lunch today! We didn't order until well after 12:00 so they were running low on several dishes. Most of us wanted the scallops, but they only had 1 order left, so I had the Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Wilted Greens and Crispy Shallots. The greens were finished with a little red wine vinegar that ballanced well with the sweet potato. The other dishes I had bites of were also good. Not listed on the menu were the desserts - a warm, molten center chocolate cake with blood orange sauce and orange cream (one of the best I've had), a strawberry shortcake (obviously not in season, so not as good as it could have been, but not bad), and a maple cream cheese pot de creme sort of thing that was very dense and smooth with a brown sugar (or maple?) topping. All of these were $1.50 each. By the way, when we went to pay the bill we learned they have a frequent diner program called "The Joy Lunch Club" (heh). Get your card punched 8 times and get the Friday all-you-can-eat buffet for free.