Tri2Cook

I went out and picked a gallon of wild blueberries today, they're a couple weeks early for the area this year... maybe I'll have blueberry pancakes tonight. Just out of curiosity, I bought a small bag of barley pancake mix (ingedients: barley and wheat flours that were stone milled about 4 hours from where I live, baking powder, sugar, salt) at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago that I've been meaning to try.

My go-to source for dried chiles in Canada is Chilly Chiles.

Maybe that's it. I was completely surprised that the one contestant (I don't remember which one) looked so confused when Johnny Iuzzini asked if she'd used anything to tighten the filling up a bit since juice was running everywhere. It wasn't an "Oops!" look, it was a "What do you mean?" look. Like the concept was completely foreign to her. Making a sweet pie doesn't require being experienced in pastry. If they were going to make anything related to the savory pot pie concept, they would make some form of pastry shell and use something to tighten up the gravy without even thinking about it. The word "dessert" just seems to inspire panic.

Do the same thing I used to do for a person who couldn't stand the "taste" of onion... puree it in a processor so they can't see or feel it in the dish and try not to laugh when they chow down with a smile on their face.

There was one where I used to live. That was about 12 years ago so I don't know how much has changed. I usually only went there for the peanut butter shake or the banana shake. Both were made by simply blending peanut butter or fresh banana with vanilla ice cream and milk. I had the jalapeno cheeseburger a few times. Nothing to get excited about burger-wise but the simplicity of a burger, cheese, mustard and jalapeno slices in a bun was actually pretty tasty. I still make them sometimes, using a good burger makes it even better.

They had to make a pie. Not a modern take on the pie that would have Johnny Iuzzini running for the woodshed, not a make-Pierre-Herme-jealous pastry, just a good pie. I could make a good pie from scratch without a recipe or help when I was 12 and I'm confident I'm not at all unique in that. I'm not suggesting that a great chef has to be a great pastry chef as well but come on... it was a pie. How can someone battling for a title like "Top Chef" be freaked out over having to make a pie? And, yes, the right person definitely went home.

The problem is more about the location than the dish or the fact that the diners were kids. It really wasn't a good decision for a school cafeteria. On the other hand, I would have no problem with serving a dish like that to kids (or having it served to my kids if I had any, which I don't) under other circumstances. The only reason I consider it a bad choice for the school cafeteria (other than the high potential for the kids to just not like it) is that it may go against the wishes or beliefs of some of the kids or their parents. There is nothing about the dish that is going to harm them or send them down the path to alcohol abuse or anything like that but, for some, it could be like incorporating some pork into a dish designed for a devout Muslim.

People like to get worked up over anything that means they don't have to think about the fact that (with the exception of medical conditions) if they just take control of how much they take in (or allow their kids to take in), none of the pet "bad ingredients" are actually going to hurt them.

In addition to most of those mentioned, my list would include some contemporary chefs that may not have stood the test of years at this point but have been much more influential on what I do than the traditional greats. I guess it remains to be seen if pastry chefs like Sam Mason and Michael Laiskonis will be recognized by the masses as being among the all-time greats on down the road... but they'll always be on my list.

White guys old enough to have predominantly grey hair have no business trying to sport dreads... that frizzy bird nest with a few string bean dreads scattered through it was just ridiculous. If he couldn't (or wouldn't) make his own puff pastry, he should have used tuiles or cookies or something instead. Actually, some thin, crisp cookies made with maple sugar would have been a better choice in my opinion. Frozen puff and maple-ish (according to the judges) mousse... what did he do for the other 2 1/2 hours of the 3 hour work time? Oh yeah, he made a mango and passion fruit sauce (that uses canned mangoes in syrup as the base) to further represent Michigan and the maple theme. Before anyone says it, I realize all of the components don't need to, and probably shouldn't, contain maple... but if maple is the theme then the flavor of maple needs to make some sort of forward statement somewhere on the plate. The judges noticed that it didn't so he should have noticed it as well and corrected it. Even if it was something as simple as a drizzle of nice, strong grade b maple syrup. I'm not claiming the guy isn't a good cook, I don't doubt that he is based on his credentials, but he made some very dumb choices as a way to introduce himself to the judges and he paid the price. That aside, it looks to me like there's going to be a fairly balanced mix of confident, talented cooks combined with some less experienced and nervous cooks. At this point, I wouldn't particularly agree that the talent level has went up a notch above last season... but we'll see.

You could do it that way if you want. I was actually suggesting doing that in small bites with various peppers just to figure out what works for you and then doing the large batch using your usual method once you know what you want to use. The problem with folding pepper into the main batch to taste is that, unless you do it just before serving, it's probably going to become more powerful as it sits then it was when you were adjusting it.

I've done the cabrales ice cream from Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts. I liked it a lot... but to be honest, I haven't found a flavor in the book that I haven't liked. Still slowly working my way through it when I have time.

I looked back at your fruit and pepper question. I've never tried it with raspberry but I've done strawberry with pink pepper and I've also done a pickled peach sorbet with pink pepper. I'd suggest making a small batch of the base flavor minus the pepper and tasting bites with various freshly ground peppers over top or worked in and see what works best for you. A little more work but you get to eat ice cream in the name of science!

I'm not familiar with that product but, since the recipe calls for just cream, puree and stabilizer, I'm guessing a large part of the stabilizer weight is some form of sugar. Also, since there's no cooking or pre-hydrating involved, I'd guess that it's some form of modified starch... which usually is used in higher ratios than most other types of stabilizers. Edit: checked the link and it appears to be a pre-hydrated gelling agent rather than a modified starch but I'm still guessing some form of sugar is a large part of the overall volume.

I don't really have any input on your menu, I just think it's awesome that you have burnt milk ice cream on there. That's one of my all-time favorite flavors from Mexico.

With no offense intended, if you can replicate it by doing that, I don't think I want to try it. That doesn't sound particularly tasty to me. I think I'd begin by soaking some flavorful, maybe slightly over-baked or briefly toasted, crumbled oatmeal cookies in part of the base liquid. Then I'd puree it, sieve it and go from there. Maybe boost some of the key and/or favorite flavor notes in the mix to compensate for eating it frozen. A packet of instant oatmeal just doesn't taste like an oatmeal cookie (to me anyway). Disclaimer: I've never tried your idea with the instant oatmeal so if you do and it's good report back and let us know. I'm always happy to be wrong about things I think won't work too well.

For me personally, the gutting and cleaning is worse than the killing. Not from a squeamish standpoint, there are just smells involved that I don't love dealing with. For the killing, I have no idea if it's the "proper" method but what we did when I was growing up was: drive two nails into a heavy board or something (We had an old tree stump with big nails in it that was the designated place for the job. There were three nails, one in the center and one on each side spaced for chicken and turkey necks). Place the birds neck between the nails so the head's on one side and the body is on the other. Pull the birds body away from the nails a little to extend the neck. Chop. One quick, solid chop with a sharp hatchet or cleaver and it's done. Yes, there will be blood and the body will flop around but, unless you're willing to go oldschool and grab it by the head and twist to break it's neck, there's going to be blood. Pigs are much more mess than a chicken and can be more traumatic for those not used to it because sometimes they don't go down as expected. Usually a shot behind the ear followed by cutting the throat does the trick but (fortunately, rarely) the first shot doesn't always put them down. I don't have any experience with cows... but that's not going to stop me from eating beef.

This one is from Francisco Migoya's Frozen Desserts. Full savory application and very tasty. The sorbet is addictive (for me anyway) on it's own but I really enjoyed the complete dish. The picture makes it look larger than it is because I'm not a good photographer. It's a single bite in a very small bowl. yellowfin sashimi - jalapeno sorbet - ponzu - toasted jalapeno seeds

I've done buttered green pea and honey butter carrot. I preferred the carrot but both were tasty.

I've done a lot of experimenting with savory ice creams and sorbets. Some successful, some not so much. This one... ...is Thai Red Curry Sweet Potato, it's from the "successful" side but I never got around to building a complete dish around it. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.

Since making my own bottle of Don Lee's Buttered Popcorn Rum, I use that with coke to make his Cinema Highball. I also got ahold of some coke syrup and smoked it ala Eben Freeman so I can make my own Waylons. Outside of that, it's usually diet coke (or pepsi) and I don't mess with it much.

Finished up the series with 80's Feast and Ultimate Feast. 80's Feast was great. He actually did a couple things that I've contemplated before while brainstorming a technology-themed dinner with gfron1... but he saw it through and figured out how to make them work. I didn't. Once again, he had me grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Ultimate Feast was basically a recap of his favorites from the first series and a bit redundant if you already watched the first series but a good push to go watch it if you haven't. I'm sure there are plenty of critics, foodies and traditionalists looking down their noses at these series. It places fun, nostalgia and boundary-pushing on almost equal footing with taste. He doesn't sacrifice taste, he just raises the spectacle and theater to a level to match the food and forces you to open up and interact whether you're completely comfy with it or not. I love it. If financial circumstances ever permit, I'm going to beg him to let me be a volunteer cabbage juicer and grapefruit-cell seperator for a month or two so I can soak up the environment he creates in.

When I was a kid I'd pick mulberries from my uncles trees and my grandmother always made cobblers with them. I don't remember any stem problems so either she did the extra work without me realizing it or I was just so happy to be eating it that I didn't care. I wish I still had access to some, I'd like to try a sorbet.

I like pork burgers. I season pork fat with a spice rub, smoke it, chill it and grind it with lean pork. I usually do this in bulk, vac pack the burgers and toss 'em in the freezer. I grill the burgers and serve them on grilled buns topped with bbq sauce, pickles and coleslaw.

I've worked in the "suck it up" environment and in the "shared" environment. While getting a share of the tips is nice, I really don't worry over it. In fact, I usually just laugh if I hear other kitchen staff grumbling about it because there are not enough tips out there to get me to do a server's job. They can keep what they earn as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't live on $8/hr. though, so I might be a little more interested in that case. But as you said, he knew the situation going in. If a better wage isn't an option for the business and you can't do anything about the tips because of agreements already in place with other employees and the need to keep him doing the job he was hired to do then he has to "suck it up" or move on. Only you know what the possibility of his moving on means to your business but regardless, the first thing I'd do is straighten him out about the grumbling. You can think it, outside of work you can say it, if you need to talk about it then come see me and let's talk but don't cause friction during business hours complaining about it to everybody in the building.