Tri2Cook

I haven't tried the MC version yet but I like the pieces of pickled mushroom in the Blumenthal version. The thing I didn't like about the Blumenthal version, done exactly as written, was that it was way too salty for me. I'll have to give the MC version a try.

Perceptions influence reaction. Some people perceive snakes as slimy. If they touch a snake, they wipe their hands in disgust. There's nothing the least bit slimy about your average snake, they're quite dry, but that doesn't change how the people who think of them as slimy react. If, in your mind, the decorating will make them taste like plastic or wax, you're probably going to avoid them and if you don't, they may even taste plastic or wax-like to you. So I can definitely understand where you're coming from. Fortunately, I don't have that problem... I'll happily destroy and devour the most intricately artful creation without hesitation if you put it on a plate in front of me.

I really need to do something like that with the kid. I know she'd love it because I've let her help with a few things in the past. The problem is, I have a bad habit of pushing her to do things the way I think they should be done instead of letting her have fun and do them the way she wants. I also have a tendency to get aggravated when I can't get her to understand what I want her to do. I'm pretty sure it carries over from work where patience regarding people not doing what they're supposed to be doing or what I need them to do isn't one of my strong points. It's definitely something I need to work on and bark seems like a perfect project to start with.

Now I'm paying attention. I wasn't too interested when I assumed it was all chocolates and confections. Thanks Kerry!

It's -24 F and windy. I was contemplating doing the turkey my gf bought, despite my instructions to the contrary (but there's no point pretending I'm actually anything silly like "in charge" ) on the grill but, unless the weather does a major unexpected shift, that won't be happening.

You're setting the cooked pears in the juice/gelatin mixture in a square mold. Once chilled and set, remove it from the mold and coat it with the glaze before placing it on top of the nougat cream in the tart base. You don't have to use all of the glaze, just enough to give it a thin, shiny coating. Glaze recipes pretty much always make more than you'll actually need.

I like that idea. Something different with the added bonus of being a Christmas morning time-saver. Thanks for the suggestion.

A higher proportion of cream definitely adds a "buttery richness", I intentionally add a much higher ratio of cream to my maple ice cream and it ends up having that butter-and-maple richness that you get when the melted butter and maple syrup combine on waffles or pancakes. But adding actual butter to ice cream does result in a different taste than you get from using more cream. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on what you're trying to achieve. It doesn't diminish the flavor if the flavor you're after is butter. The additional fat may slightly diminish the perception of other flavors but so does the temperature of frozen items. We adjust the base to compensate for the temp, we can do the same to compensate for additional fat if we need to. Personally, if the butter is being added only to boost the overall fat content with no interest in the flavor aspect, I'd just adjust the cream ratio... but butter works.

Nice breakfast... looks a lot better than the All Bran pellets I had. Took a peek at that menu. It'd be a tough choice, the sourdough pancakes or the buckwheat pancakes.

It isn't. I've done it with semolina.

We don't do anything special for Christmas dinner, we do Christmas breakfast instead. We used to do both but it turned the day into an endless stream of work that took most of the fun out of it so I finally decided that it was going to be one or the other. The voters went with breakfast. Makes it easier for everybody because some have other places they go that day. As for tradition, there isn't really much of that involved with the breakfast other than the gf likes to have eggs benedict so I do that along with a few things others like. I'm thinking of changing it up a bit this year but I haven't really planned exactly what I'm going to do yet.

Actual balance between home life and work in this profession isn't something I've managed to find. So I try to maximize the home life time in terms of quality to hopefully compensate somewhat for what I can't give in quantity. If they've been living with it their entire life, they probably understand more than you're giving them credit for. My kid is almost 14. She's been living with my work requirements her entire life and she understands that sometimes I just can't be there for things I'd like to be and she'd like me to be. I don't know if she actually cares if I love what I do or not but she understands that I have to do it and is okay with that. That's good enough for me. I don't need her to love what I do as long as she knows I love her.

It's possible we have different versions of his recipe. Mine just says "banana puree", it doesn't specify fresh or not.

I've never had a problem with the Laiskonis recipe but I've only done it with Boiron and Sicoly banana purees, never done it with fresh banana, so I'd be inclined to agree cooking your bananas would be a good place to start. I'm pretty certain I remember Michael Laiskonis saying on one of his blogs that he always uses commercial purees (when available in the flavor he's working with) for consistency in his products so I'm pretty sure that's what he would have used in the ganache recipe.

Sounds like a Christmas carol... a very tasty Christmas carol.

Thanks! I'm actually working on streamlining the process right now. Kerry gave me the idea when she mentioned making cutters. I did a little google time and, hopefully, found what I need. I requested a quote from a place here in Ontario that makes custom tin cookie cutters. Just waiting to hear back from them. I'm not sure if I can get it done in time for this year but, if this works out, I'll be ready for next year.

That's about all I could suggest, just experiment. I know exactly how much help that isn't but that's all I've got. Hopefully someone else has more help to offer. For me, with New York style of cheesecake, some of the moisture escaping during baking is important to the final texture but I've never tried what you're planning with the sous vide then bake. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

The last one I made, I spent hours working on. Many hours in the very early morning/late night because it was a surprise for my gf's daughter. I built a huge castle with a detailed grounds and everything. I got up very early Christmas morning and got it all set up, it covered most of the dining room table. About 5 minutes before she got to see it, while we were in the living room waiting for her to wake up, her cat decided it would be a fun place to explore and did a large amount of damage. I wasn't impressed... but what can you do besides laugh?

I'm going to preface this with the disclaimer that I'm very much a proponent of modern techniques and ingredients in cooking. Now I'm going to follow that by asking, if a New York style cheesecake is the goal, why would you want to go to the trouble of adapting it to sous vide? I'm not asking why as in "just bake it dummy", I'm asking why as in what is the specific goal you have in mind that makes doing it sous vide a better option than the, pretty much never fail, traditional way of doing a New York cheesecake. I've done sous vide cheesecake recipes that were good for their application but not at all like a New York style. I've also done a few versions using various hydrocolloids which made them "no bake" cheesecakes. They weren't anything like a New York style either. Even if you get the density right, the texture isn't the same. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, do you want a New York style cheesecake or do you just want a more dense cheesecake? Because I haven't seen a result from any "modernist" cheesecake variation that even comes close in quality to the traditional if New York style is the specific goal.

That one sounds tasty.

Do what you want to do and remove anybody that complains from next year's list. Seriously though, for the most part, I make holiday baking as easy on myself as possible. I'm particularly happy with recipes I can scoop with my cookie scoop and plop on the pans. Allows for knocking out a lot of cookies fast. I do very few that require rolling and cutting. I usually do these Mr. Hankey gingerbreads... ...which are a pain in the butt because, as far as I know, no such cutter exists. So I cut out each one with a knife. I'm seriously considering dropping them for this year, they're hugely time-consuming.

I have 2 recipes for those, one credited as German and one as Swiss, and they're completely different. From the reading I've done, the recipe credited as German seems to be the one that is authentic. The one credited as Swiss contains chocolate, a huge amount of cinnamon and no almonds. I don't remember where I got it.

The closest Vintages store is 5 hours away so not convenient but doable if I or someone I know goes there for any reason. I'll keep a watch for it but it's really not a huge deal if it doesn't get this far. There are a few things still on my list that I really want but, in general, I've slowed down significantly on the booze buying.

I'm keeping one eye on the LCBO site just in case the Pierre Ferrand makes it to this end of the province.

What you're wanting to do should work fine. I'd add a little glucose, cook it to temp (which is going to get the water down to where it should be) and proceed as usual. It may take longer to get it to temp due to the additional water but I don't see any potential actual problems. Sounds tasty.