Tri2Cook

When too much air is incorporated and it goes fluffy (how's that for a technical description? ).

I don't have a thing to add, never been near a paco jet, just wanted to mention that I'm very jealous.

You didn't really give us much information about the item you want to recreate. You told us what you're thinking of doing (which sounds like a basic apple pie with a couple variations added) so I made the assumption that that was based on what you were trying to recreate. Did the person give you any information as to what was in the item, what they tasted/thought they tasted, whether it was sweet (which is the direction your recreation idea points), if it had meat in it, etc.? Edit: I went through some of my mom's recipes in a notebook titled "Mark". Mark was her fella and he is of Irish heritage so it seemed like a good idea to check out recipes she'd collected for cooking for him since she was a pastry chef during her working years. I found the following untitled and not precise in measurement/description recipe which may or may not be Irish: tart apples, peeled, cored, thin sliced onions, thin sliced butter fresh thyme salt and pepper cheddar or lancashire, sliced Saute onions in butter. Toss apples with salt, pepper and thyme. Layer apples and onions in pastry. Cover with cheese slices and top with pastry. Bake, 350 F.

By that logic, if you go far enough back in the process you'll find some form of a natural beginning to pretty much everything you eat or drink. The stuff the beets and sugar cane make isn't snowy white. Very few things in the food world are man-made. They're man-extracted, man-refined, man-modified, man-enhanced, man-f#*ked-up and even, in some cases, man-improved but not many (if any) are actually man-made. It's what happens to it after we get ahold of it that determines where each person has to draw their lines.

Apologies, that was supposed to be funny. Good thing I don't try to make a living with my humor isn't it?

It went well. The customers were very happy and so were their guests. I don't know how to convey how vague the inclusion of cocoa products was in some areas without handing you a plate but it really was a background note in general. I'll give a basic rundown of where it appeared. - cocoa rub pork tenderloin cubes w/ caramelized cocoa nibs, passionfruit coulis and ancho chile oil That one's obvious except I decided not to use the caramelized nibs with it because... - salad greens w/ pickled quince, rosemary and pink peppercorns ...I used them as "croutons" for this one. It was funny, quite a few people actually thought the caramelized nibs were some kind of nut. - walleye w/ grapefruit reduction and chocolate consomme I was worried about this one but it went over very well which made me happy because it was taking a bit of risk for dining in this area. - chicken breast w/ chicken and smoked paprika infused butter, wild rice and warm orange-carrot gelee There was white chocolate in the orange-carrot, very subtle but it was there. - prime rib w/ mushroom ketchup and caramelized onions, warm roasted parsnip mousse and pan fried beets with greens Made a small change here. The parsnips available were not accceptable so I did potato "mousse" with cream, vanilla bean and cocoa butter. I was going to do the same with the parsnips. - ice wine gelee w/ roasted red grapes Very lightly dusted the plate with pulverized white chocolate mixed with a little white edible "glitter" to give a sparkly, snowy look. - deconstructed Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte chocolate whipped cream on chocolate shortbread kirsch cream on vanilla shortbread spiced port cherry compote chunk of aerated chocolate Apologies for the lack of pictures for anybody interested. It was 7 courses for 24 people with me doing all of the cooking and one person helping me with the plating so we were kinda busy in order to keep a smooth flow. Forgot all about a camera.

Pretty much. I tend to lean more towards the "ignorance is bliss" and "what I don't know won't hurt me until it hurts me... I'll worry about it then" line of thinking for my personal eating. I'm much more attentive when cooking/baking for others or for pay but I don't have the time or desire to scrutinize everything I want to eat or drink that carefully. Probably not smart and maybe it will cost me a few hours/days/years in the end but it's a lot less stressful not worrying over it now. Isn't stress bad for us too?

I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for exactly. I know what apple pie is but it seems like you're looking for something a little different than that. You're description sounds pretty much like my standard apple pie (minus the currants), I prefer making them with tart apples and far less sugar than most people are happy about.

M holiday spirit seems to be at an all time low. I'm not depressed. I'm not unhappy. I'm just feeling tired and uninterested this year. I've literally done no baking or shopping at all. None. Zero. I'm going to try to get all of my shopping done thursday, I don't think the baking is going to happen this year. There are a few friends who prefer the cookies and confections that I usually do over any gift I would buy for them, they're not going to be happy with me this year I don't think. I'm making a couple giant aerated chocolates that I hope to be energetic enough to coat in tempered chocolate for two people who really like them. I don't see much else happening. Anybody else doing the Holiday Anti Bake Off this year or am I the lone Grinch?

I wound up draining the cherries and folding them into a kirsch cream but this is still very useful information to me. Agar gummies is an awesome idea as well. Thanks to you both!

Reminds me of that old joke: Have you ever seen an eggplant? "Yes." Then you've been farther up a chicken's butt then I'd want to be. Where the egg came from doesn't bother me at all... that little white clump of umbilical cord-looking stuff in the egg is a different story. I ignore the smaller ones but the huge, nasty looking ones have to go. I hate seeing a big hunk of it in a bite of chocolate cake.

Actually, I'm not sure if it's considered acceptable or not but every course on the menu has some form of chocolate/cocoa in it. A background theme, in most of the courses way in the background, but it is there. Possibly not a good idea but too late to change it now... my prep work is done and the fun begins in a couple hours.

I'm not an experienced pate de fruit maker but I have played around with it a little. I ordered some G-pectin and have done a couple recipes with that with good results. I have some (froma jar) sour cherries that I've marinated in port and spices that are falling apart as I pit them and I'm wondering if there would be any problems with pureeing said cherries and making a pate de fruit with the puree. I also have some morello cherry puree that I considered hitting with a bit of kirsch and doing a pate de fruit with that as well. Does alcohol cause any problems that I should be aware of?

hathor: Chicken pops are annoying little pains-in-the... errr... they're the drumette part of the chicken wing with all of the meat pushed down to one end and the exposed bone "lollipop stick" cleaned of any remaining meaty bits then cooked/seasoned/sauced as desired. I never list them, I never offer to do them, I get a surprisingly (to me anyway) large number of requests for them. So my final menu for tomorrow ended up slightly different than it started and I was inspired by suggestions here to add a little more spice to a few items... - cocoa rub pork tenderloin cubes w/ caramelized cocoa nibs, passionfruit coulis and ancho chile oil - salad greens w/ pickled quince, rosemary and pink peppercorns - walleye w/ grapefruit reduction and chocolate consomme - chicken breast w/ chicken and smoked paprika infused butter, wild rice and warm orange-carrot gelee - cleanser - prime rib w/ mushroom ketchup and caramelized onions, warm roasted parsnip mousse and pan fried beets with greens - ice wine gelee w/ roasted red grapes - deconstructed Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte They wouldn't budge on the wine so Pinot Noir it is and I'll also have a good beer available as well. After making a couple calls and scouring the area, I couldn't get a decent cheese in time so that's going to have to wait for another time.

Could you grind the pistachios into butter, use that to flavor your pastry cream and work the cream through a very fine sieve before cooling? I know that would be a lot of work if you're talking large quantity but it would make use of the pistachios you already have. I've used all-natural almond and cashew butters to flavor things with great results but I've never tried making pistachio butter so I may be way off here.

If Kerry pops in she may be able to point you in the right direction. Based on some PM conversations we've had, I'd say she has a pretty extensive knowledge of pectins. I know she's helped me out a time or three.

Got my copy last week and finally found time to browse through it last night after work. It's a cool book with some interesting ideas. Not as many of them as I would have liked but interesting just the same. I loved their ideas in the first book for bringing traditionally savory items into sweets so it was fun getting a look into their ideas for bringing things from the sweet world into their savory creations as well. They included their recipe for the chocolate-grapefruit gelee sheets they baked the salmon in for the "Eight Chocolate Courses" Chef At Large episode. I don't know when I'll get around to trying any of the recipes but I'm not sorry I ordered it.

I'll have a look around and see what I can find but finding good cheeses here is right up there with finding an igloo in Hawaii. No time to order it in, Monday is showtime for this one. I had another, much more casual job last night. It went well. It was apps/cocktails at 6, dinner served family style at 7 and a plated dessert. It was for 17 people and no table service required so I did it solo. apps: - duck breast w/ mushrooms cooked in duck fat and blueberry/port reduction. - butter poached shrimp on a slice of ripe plantain that was fried in butter, tossed in a mixture of sugar, salt, chipotle powder and smoked paprika and topped with a generous pinch of spray dried coconut milk. I served these in spoons with a drizzle of the shrimp poaching butter. - honey-jalapeno glazed chicken pops (a request, I hate making chicken pops) main: - pork loin: butterflied, lined with prosciutto slices and apple/cornbread stuffing, tied and slow roasted. - wild mushroom risotto - green beans pan fried w/ bacon and onions dessert: - chocolate biscuit soaked with framboise, fresh raspberries and chocolate/raspberry mousse in dome molds, sprayed with white chocolate and topped with a raspberry tuile basket filled with fresh raspberries.

That's awesome! I'm loving those chile ornaments. I went to the gingerbread topic and took a peek at the village as well. They'll be fighting over this when the "for sale" sign goes up.

There may be a good reason for doing it that way, not questioning that at all, but it would have to be a fairly significant difference for me to do the extra work. Kinda like Herme's reverse puff dough. I tried it and it's cool but it's not different enough from the usual suspects to be worth the effort to me. Now his chocolate puff dough is a different story... a thing of beauty.

How's the texture? I've read a few different recipes for fruitcake where the authors mention that they've tried using regular (not candied) dried fruits instead and that they end up with a dry cake even if they soak the fruit first (which seemed odd to me, I soak the raisins for cinnamon buns and they don't end up dry).

Interesting. I don't think I'm likely to go to that extra trouble to make puff dough but it's still cool to see how others do things.

I made a tourtiere with pickled beets and a cucumber salad. Didn't bother with a picture but it was tasty. I ate too much and now I'm feeling lazy but I have a lot of work to do tonight so I guess it's coffee time.

Thanks for your thoughts Saltydog. I did a test run of the fish with chard and it wasn't too delicate for it to work but I have a couple other ideas I want to try that I think may be more fun without sacrificing flavor. I want to work a couple things in that will be unusual to them along with the more familiar stuff. About 1/3 or so of the menu I listed below has been reconsidered and I'm testing other ideas. I have another job similar to this one coming up friday so I'm concentrating more on it right now but I'm still trying out a few things for this one at the same time.

Nice stuff Ling, that Linzer tart looks really good. Sounds like a fun event.