Tri2Cook

Thanks folks. I don't want to make artificial body fluids and don't know anything about making paper but I'll find something to do with it. Edit: Actually, after giving it some thought, I have an idea I'm going to try. It would belong in the pastry forum if it works out though, not here. If not, I've received a couple private messages offering to take it off my hands.

I have my mom's book of notes, recipes and ideas from her years as a pastry chef. That's my most coveted item, she's a large part of why I cook for a living now. She told me to always play with my food and never accept that there's already a "best" version of anything. The book was found while my sister and other relatives were sorting out the house and a few other family members tried to get their hands on it. My sister and my grandmother told them to f@#% off... that it was going to me. My most used book? I don't think I have one of those. My mom had the theory that you make it their way once... then you fix what should be different from then on and I've kinda adopted it. Most of the baking and pastry books she owned (which I now have) are filled with notes in every available blank space where she altered things the way she thought they needed to be. When I'd ask her for a recipe, she'd usually give me a generic one that I already knew/could find myself. I'd say "I want the one you make". She'd say "create the one you make". It was really irritating sometimes. Of course I have all those recipes now but I try my best to not use them... I get it now.

A few months ago, in a flurry of excitement after reading the various threads here, I ordered a bunch of the cool chemicals/additives for doing various food science experiments. I was thrilled with the spherification, I don't/didn't use it at the restaurant but still play around with it occasionally at home/for private jobs/etc. I still make some use of the tapioca maltodextrin, carrageenan and a couple other things as well. The methylcellulose (E50 if I remember correctly), I bought to try the "hot ice cream" thing with. After a little learning curve, it worked great but I wasn't too thrilled. I thought it was "neat" but it didn't make me think ice cream in any way other than appearance. So, after the initial fun of learning something new, I was no longer interested in that particular idea which left me with over 400 grams of the stuff. I was doing an inventory of the toy chest recently and almost tossed it when it occured to me to ask here about things to do with it other than trashcan it. Any ideas? If there's nothing that sounds interesting to do with it I'll send it to whoever wants it/asks first rather than throw it away. It's been kept in a tightly sealed glass jar in it's original, resealable bag in a dark, cool cabinet so it should be in good shape.

I threw some nice, thick ribeyes on the grill and served them with polenta with garlic and chives from the garden, blanched some asparagus, wrapped it with prusciutto and tossed it on the grill and did some fondant potatoes with olive oil and butter. Nothing ground breaking or earth shaking but everybody seemed to enjoy it. I didn't get pics, I had some friends over and wasn't really thinking about the camera.

Yeah, the egg and sugar amounts and whether or not you want a little flour/cornstarch/etc. has to be messed with/decided depending on what you plan to put in there. I was talking about a completely blank slate. I guess it's actually an almost completely blank slate because you could even leave out or greatly reduce the sugar if you're doing a savory cheesecake.

Well if you want to start with a completely blank slate, 1 lg. egg and 1/4 c. sugar per 8 oz. cream cheese is just about as basic as it gets. Leaves a lot of room for whatever experimenting you want to do.

He said beer.

The fact that those are healthy is definitely a bonus because my time when I'm not cooking is largely devoted to my training but they're just so much better than the thick, deep fried things that I'd probably eat them even if they were less healthy. Now I want some, guess I'll have to make a trip to the store.

I use beer in shrimp or crawfish etouffee. I use it in onion ring batter. I tried it instead of wine in my wild mushroom soup just out of curiosity and I do it that way all of the time now. It's a subtle difference but I liked it and so did everybody else that tried it. I have a batch of Guinness ice cream with caramelized cocoa nibs in the freezer that I made over the weekend. A scoop or three in a glass of stout or porter makes a nice float. Beer sabayon is different but tasty, I use it with gingerbread in which I use barley malt syrup instead of molasses.

I know what you mean about the "any fat and you're doomed" warnings but I've never experienced a tiny bit of yolk or other fat causing any major problems. Maybe slightly less volume but nothing that couldn't be worked with. I try to avoid it but I definitely don't toss the whites if it happens.

I use one of these with the "berry" screen unless I'm doing a really small amount. It holds a lot and it's not any more difficult to clean than any other piece of kitchen equipment.

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Pie...m=1&sa=N&tab=wi

I haven't seen that book yet but I've been playing around with vanilla a bit lately too. I infused a container of fleur de sel with vanilla beans and also buzzed some with dried vanilla pods in a processor. The fine stuff from the processor is more aromatic at this point but without the nice texture of the unprocessed batch. I'm hoping that picks up more flavor over time. I haven't actually done much with either yet but I've got a few ideas in my head I want to play around with.

Wow, thanks everybody. This place is way better than google. I searched every variation of fruit puree canada I could think of and didn't come up with any of these.

Thanks, I'm going to contact them too.

I made the bases for the Roasted Banana and the Salted Butter Caramel after we closed last night. I haven't run 'em through the machine yet but they taste awesome. I didn't find the caramel lacking sweetness or at all bitter but, as I mentioned, I don't take my caramel to the edge of black very often so maybe that made a difference. The freebie recipes and all the good comments here have sold a book for you, I ordered it this morning. I've never bought an ice cream book before, I like making up my own, so this should be fun. edit (update): The roasted flavor of the banana is really nice, I let a friend at work try a bite without telling her anything about it and she said "it tastes like banana bread". Good stuff. The salted caramel, I'm waiting 'til tomorrow to let anyone try it so the praline can settle in a bit but I did take a small taste while putting it in a container and it's really good. That put me in an ice cream mood so I made a batch of Kona coffee ice cream (my gf is a coffee ice cream addict and prefers it without add-ins so gotta keep her happy) and, since I just happened to be drinking a Guinness, I made a batch of Guinness ice cream with caramelized cocoa nibs too.

Thanks! After seeing your reply I searched for and found their website. I'm going to shoot them an email and/or give them a call after the long weekend.

I'm in a small town in a remote area and so far I've had no luck sourcing fruit purees (such as boiron but brand doesn't matter, only quality) through our suppliers at the restaurant or through the local stores. I don't actually need them for the restaurant, they're for me personally, but I order things for myself through our suppliers now and then. I can't imagine that they can't find anything so I'm assuming they just haven't tried too hard but maybe that's being too cynical. Anyway, anybody know a mailorder source within Canada they'd be willing to share? I know L'Epicerie ships them but not across the border because they require overnight shipping in insulated containers.

Except for a few situations (mostly savory), I almost never cook caramel as dark as recipes looking for "on the edge of burnt" tell me to. I'm not big on bitterness as a dessert component. There's probably a pastry instructor somewhere that wants to thwack me on the head with a wooden spoon for that but that's how I do things. So far, nobody has ever said "ya know, that caramel really should be more bitter".

Errr... well... I prefer to call myself a cook but I'm the top of the food chain in my kitchen so whatever you choose to call that I guess. I'm not a celebrity (and don't play one on tv) and don't have a cookbook but it's what I do for a living. I don't try to impress friends who are cooks/chefs (or anyone else for that matter if they're eating at my house) with fancy presentations, complicated menus, cutting edge techniques, etc. I want to give them good food and plenty of time to relax and have fun. That's what I like to find when I eat at a friends house as well. After spending all day with fancy this and schmancy that sometimes a big bowl of chicken and dumplings is the best thing in the world.

If they're coming to my house for dinner and not the restaurant then I think I'd be completely relaxed. Since it's summer I'd probably throw some pig and/or brisket in the smoker and do my versions of the usual suspects that accompany that type of thing, toss 'em a beer from the cooler and hope they're happy. I'd like to think someone with a beer in their hand and bbq sauce running down their chin is just enjoying it and not going over their foodie checklist. I think the restaurant would be more intimidating, whether it should be or not.

Yeah, I already learned my lesson about unfamiliar kitchens. Sometimes it's the simple things that get you in trouble. At one of our earlier jobs where I was cooking onsite I completely forgot to check the oven. When things started taking too long I realized what was going on and what I forgot to do and tossed a thermometer in the oven. Yep, it was off by almost 125 F. Required a bit of improvising to stay close to on time. That was a blusher I'd prefer not to repeat so I'm doing the Santa thing for all onsite jobs now, I'm takin' a list and checkin' it twice.

*drool*

The fresh strawberries and rhubarb combo, among my favorite spring things... those look tasty.

Now that sounds like a game plan I can live with. That fits my "don't bother me, I'm working" personality and still allows me to be the "charming" (been called a lot of things in my life but I don't recall charming being one of them) host that they deserve for their money. Thanks to everybody, I'm feeling pretty good about this now. I'm used to being in my nice closed kitchen at the restaurant but I've recently started venturing into some catering and private dinner jobs with a business partner (the owner of the restaurant but we're doing the other stuff seperately as a partnership, not an employee/employer extension of the restaurant situation) and they're starting to roll in more often than we anticipated so I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.