Tri2Cook

Wish I could help but I've made an honest effort over many years to teach myself to like liver from various critters prepared in various ways including the so-called gourmet items and it just isn't going to happen for me. I've become pretty sure it's one of those things that isn't mental, I genuinely don't like it.

Yeah that was pretty cool. Good stuff.

The final round of the taste test was a joke. If they've ever made a clam chowder and could indentify that that's what it was when they tasted it their ability to taste was no longer required... they could just starting naming the usual ingredients. Gordon Ramsay: "That's the best risotto to come out of Hell's Kitchen this season." Matt: "He said that was the best risotto he ever tasted." Errrr... no he didn't.

Because people who spend their whole lives eating store-bought cake think that's what cake is supposed to taste like.

If that's the one with the caramelized bananas and passion fruit foam then yes, I have done it and it is good. Use chocolate you like because it will taste like what you use. I've done probably around 60% of the Wild Sweets book and about 80% of the Wild Sweets: Chocolate book so far and haven't been unhappy yet.

Yeah, I definitely appreciate the suggestion but I wasn't considering trying photo flo. I'm not the sort to start up a protest over some trans fat or run the other way because there's methyltransglulecigeenanate in the main course but for some reason photo flo sounds like a scary option. There are a lot of food additives (and natural food substances) that are potential eye or inhalation irritants and some are even potentially harmful if swallowed in sufficient quantity but they're still marketed for food use... I'm pretty sure photo flo isn't. I'm waiting on a couple of other things I need then I'll give these ideas a try and let you all know how it goes. Thanks everybody.

You could do pulled pork or grilled chicken with a rhubarb bbq sauce and smoked potato salad. You could do some sort of rhubarb relish with grilled fish.

"Griddle my Goats cheese." Is that kinda like "kiss my grits"? smoked buckwheat (smoke the flour before using) griddle cakes with grilled eggplant, pecans and goat cheese smoked potato (smoke the parboiled spuds) and goat cheese gratin rhubard curd on pecan shortbread with whipped goat cheese I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go.

Exactly. I have a $15 knife that I prefer over my $150+ knives for some jobs.

Thanks! That is quite a bit different than the one he did on the show but sounds more likely to be something he'd have in the restaurant. I grabbed the recipe in case it disappears. I definitely appreciate it.

I can definitely see purchasing those things to play with. I have all of those and many more and I don't really have use for most of it at work, it's just for fun. The trick is to buy them (sans the texturas name) somewhere like Chef Rubber, L'epicerie, Le Sanctuaire, etc. and you can get lbs. of assorted fun goodies to play with for the same money you'd spend on that little kit. Most of the "tools" you'd need are already in your kitchen or easily obtained. The recipes are all over the internet and easily found, I (and I'm sure many others here) have a pretty extensive collection of bookmarks to get you started with. So, to make a long reply longer, yes... do play. It's fun. Spend your money wisely and you can get a whole lot more to play with for the same money or the same collection as in the kit for much less money.

Sooo... over 100 views already and not one "hey, that would be cool". Oh well, I definitely hope it happens. He can just print me out the only copy from his computer and tell me what he needs to charge me for it, I'll sign the contract saying nobody else will ever see it.

Soooo... if you want to do the cake and want to do whipped cream and need to freeze it why not just assemble the cake, freeze it, then coat it with the whipped cream when you're ready to use it? It doesn't take long to coat a cake in cream even if you're doing some piping. I'm the second worst cake decorator (icing/piping) in the world (possibly the worst but I'm hoping there's someone out there somewhere that struggles more with it) and it doesn't take me long to coat/pipe a cake with cream so it should be a breeze for most people.

Sam Mason mentioned in an interview last year that he was thinking of doing a book. I know he pops in on the forums here occasionally so I'm starting this thread to see if I can drum up support for the idea from others. That book is something I'd really like to see happen, I've done almost every recipe of his that I've been able to find and I want more to learn from.

Lecithin, glycerine and alcohol I have. I'll see what I can do with those for now. Thanks for the help!

I'm looking for something that will eliminate/greatly reduce the surface tension of liquid (water) like borax but it has to be food safe and food friendly (meaning it can't taste bad, completely neutral would be ideal). Does anyone know of something or have suggestions I could try?

You can get both at le sanctuaire, l'epicerie, chefrubber and lots of other places I can't think of right now. You want the kappa carrageenan for this.

Funny this topic should show up this morning. I just got a 4 lb. box of strawberries in yesterday and was deciding what I'm going to do with them so I'll keep an eye on this thread.

I don't see why it wouldn't other than cream might give you something a little thin and difficult to work with unless you're really careful with the amount. I've used white chocolate, butter and corn syrup and that has a nice shine but it's not actually white, it's more ivory.

Rob - the white mirror glaze from dejaq's demo is nice and shiny. Shaloop - so is the dark glaze from the same demo. I use both frequently. I haven't managed that beautiful swirl work he shared in the demo to a level I was happy with, gonna keep working at it though.

Yep, xanthan works and carrageenan at about .02% will work too but you have to heat it to about 150f so that requires advanced planning for cold chocolate.

Got my logon information today but I won't have time to check it out until tonight. Dammit. Okay, I lied. I couldn't resist logging on and taking a quick peek but I need to be working so I'll still have to wait to really check it out.

Those look tasty Rob. Sorry, didn't mean to make it a mystery. It's been a really busy couple of weeks and I was feeling lazy. It's a riff on Sam Mason's Soft Chocolate. I wanted to see if I could get the texture without the chocolate masking the clean taste of the mint. I got it to work but it took some trial and error. There is no actual chocolate (not even white) in the "soft chocolate". I used cocoa butter instead and it did not translate straight across like I hoped but after some work I got it where I wanted it. The flavor is clean and the texture is beautiful. It feels like butter just before it actually melts but it's cold and not greasy. It flows into an almost liquid state when it hits the tongue. The chocolate bits are baked chocolate mousse. They're sitting on ye basic mint emulsion. The powder I'm calling butter mints after the candy of the same name. It's butter, fresh mint, mint oil, confectioners sugar and tapioca maltodextrin all blitzed together. The more I use tapioca maltodextrin, the less I like it. I think next time I would just up the confectioners, drop the maltodextrin, let it dry then crush it.

Mint:

Nice! That Kitchenaid closeup was a bit painful until I could get the volume down but it was still cool.