Intellidepth

What shall I do with a 2mm flexible slab of Morello Cherry candy on a silpat (hard ball stage)? Concentrated, very solidly chewy. Thanks!

vengroff - searched under 'sous vide' for your app in the store, couldn't locate it yet. I only have an iphone so keen for the alternative user interface What a brilliant concept.

Good grinder first. Always. Provides consistency in your brew. You can play with your beans - but your grinder's the fixture that those beans rely on to get the best out of them before water's even hit them.

I'd like to try this.. Is it an OK idea to marinade chicken breast strips 10mm thick in the wine/salt/oil (+herbs - fresh thyme and maybe sweet paprika) portion of the velveting mix for say 12 hours prior to velveting as a traditional marinade for the purpose of breaking down the proteins, and then adding the cornstarch and egg whites to it to create the complete velveting marinade just prior to frying? Is it OK to use Rice Bran Oil as I need a really delicate flavour. Thanks.

I can't get it here where I live in Australia and am newly requiring it in my Raffles Singapore Slings, which I've become partial to after a recent visit to that famous location. Could someone please clarify if the Cherry Heering flavour includes the 'bitter almond' overtone evident in some cherry brandies?

I love my Macap M4, stepless, dosered, purchased in 2008. For espresso use specifically. If I was a plunger/stove-top kind of person I might go, at a pinch, for the stepped version, but only reluctantly after using the precision of a stepless. I guess it depends on what your expectations of your finished coffee are. The finer the control, the more regular the grounds, the better the coffee can be. Early in my coffee journey I lined up grounds from various machines (whacker blade to prosumer burr) in a row on white paper. The differences were astounding. And helped justify my purchase of the Macap M4 . And the quality of the resulting espresso? Amazing. A stepless gives you the fine control you need to change your grind as the beans age (that is, from 3 days to about 3 weeks after roasting), and to suit your taste preferences.

My vote goes to: coffeesnobs.com.au Their Espresso Wow blend is amazing. I live in Australia and receive it by express mail within 3 days of roasting.

Thick crema and full aroma: sounds like you're really searching for an espresso machine, paired with a great grinder and beans roasted in the last week. Welcome to my home! My home machine is a La Vibiemme Domobar Super, paired with a Macap M4. Love it. Paired with really fresh beans that I have posted to me direct from a roastery which reach me within 3 days of roasting, the crema is magical, the aroma divine and the flavour hmmmm. Must say though, it's in a completely different financial ballpark to most of the machines mentioned here, but I also expect it to last 20 years... There are suppliers in Australia who allow you to bench-test their espresso machines - a worthwhile exercise if you're looking at 'investing' your hard earned cash on a prosumer grinder and espresso machine. Perhaps you'll find a place similar in the UK?

MAINS A bed of finely shredded iceberg lettuce, topped with finely chopped mangoes and red peppers (capsicum) with a squeeze of lime, followed by a layer of garlic pepper butter prawns. Lemon thyme chicken, with sides of honeyed carrots, steamed beans and mixed rice. Roasted sweet potato and bacon soup with cream and a hint of steeped rosemary. Roasted sweet potato chunks, danish fetta, steamed green beans and toasted almonds. Maybe with roasted chicken? Chicken pizza with bbq sauce, mozzarela/tasty cheese mix, thyme, red pepper (capsicum). Shepherd's pie and mixed steamed vegetables. Chicken thighs wrapped in bacon rashers, topped with swiss cheese, sprinkled with herbed dry breadcrumb stuffing mix and baked in a bath of white wine and condensed chicken soup. Served with mashed/baked potato, greens and carrot. Chicken san choy bow. Haven't found a successful 'side' yet. Quiche of any description. Frittata of any description. White fish pan fried with shredded continental cucumber and condensed cream of celery soup, thickened. Sounds weird but tastes pretty good in a large vol-au-vent with a garden salad (minus the tomato) as a side. Risotto cooked with butter and a hint of lemon juice, then chicken stock, followed by add-ins like shredded parmesan and any vege/meat combo I have available.

gfron1: the gaping mouth of my kitchen sink is devouring most of them. Apologies for this long post... its here for future generations ‘Crème’ Experiment 6 Texture: very thick creme, like double-cream/King Island Cream for those in Australia. Sweetness: just enough to enhance the vanilla Vanilla: enough to be distinctive without turning it into a full vanilla custard flavour Recipe: 4 yolks from 59g eggs ¼ cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 375ml cream (1 ½ cups) 125ml milk (1/2 cup) (Serves 4) ----- Oven 150*C. Rack in centre of oven. Boil water in kettle. Mix yolks, sugar and extract with silicone spatula in 1L jug. Heat cream and milk to 85*C in heavy-based medium saucepan, stirring gently. Take off heat, continue to stir and cool to 75*C to avoid scrambling when tempering (dairy mix may rise to 90*C before dropping). Temper egg mix: very slowly pour dairy mix into yolk mix by teaspoonfuls (approx.) incorporating well after each addition. After about 5 teaspoons, start adding in tablespoon quantities and then ¼ cup quantities until about 1/3rd of the egg mix is tempered, then add the rest of the dairy mix and stir briefly. Strain into another 1L jug. Skim off bubbles. Pour into ramekins gently. Torch fine bubbles to remove them. A domestic gas lighter is fine. Individually foil seal the ramekins (double layer) and place in thin metal tray. Water bath 1/8th inch using boiled water in thin metal tray. Bake: 55-60 minutes. Bench-top cool-down to room temp with foil removed to prevent condensation. Refrigerate overnight, covered with plastic wrap. Equipment: 2 x 1L jugs 5ml teaspoon 63ml cup (¼ cup) measure 250ml cup (1 cup) measure 2 x silicone spatulas or wooden spoons Heavy-based medium saucepan Candy thermometer Fine strainer to fit in/over a 1L jug Domestic gas lighter Foil Thin metal tray(s) Ramekins: four x 2½” wide x 2” tall Notes of wisdom: cooking time will depend on the size, shape, thickness and density of ramekins, the thickness of the metal tray, and the temperamentality of one’s oven. Notes of regret: reducing the bake time by 10 minutes (from 60) didn't affect the tiny overcooked top edge which may have to do with the shape of my ramekins - widening towards the top. Notes of interest: it's amazing how close this recipe is to the original considering every ingredient received alteration and experimentation. And thus ceases my interest in my favourite dessert for a few months.

Thank you so much. To be truly frank, I'd never heard of freezing egg whites until I became an eGulleteer and have read it now in quite a few threads. Can thawed whites be used in any recipe or does freezing change their chemical makeup somehow? Are they better in some recipes than others?

I have a fabulous memory of my first pink lemonade in the US 15 years ago - it was the best 'real' lemonade I had tasted (no carbonation), and I had a mother who was expert at the manual technique with our own lemon trees. So I guess it did have something extra but I'd never be able to define what it was. I remember it being sweet, but not as tart, with a more rounded flavour? Some eliminations: NOT - beet juice - pomegranate syrup, I can imagine a lovely fragrance from this combo though - cranberry - strawberry - Chambord, but I'll just have to give that a try after buying my first gorgeous bottle of this raspberry jammy liquor last week. Maybe: - A hint of raspberry syrup And just maybe it was made from real pink lemons...

Let me qualify: my husband is a plain food fan (no chilli please), and I grew up on exotic everything. For 10 years I've been trying to breach the gap, but have veered towards keeping my husband eating at home instead of the local diner . To add to the mix, I have a 3 year old son whose favourite foods consist of ham, mango, watermelon and chocolate. Did I mention ice-cream? He dislikes cheese and tomato. Living in sub-tropical Australia we have an overall preference for fresher, distinctively, simply flavoured foods rather than stewed unrecognisable mush, although I'm happy to give anything a try. Menu ideas anyone please?

My father made me try everything once. So... I will eat anything, but prefer not to have: Rollmops - ate a jar full once... that cured me for a lifetime. (Raw pickled fish.) Beer - a wealth of promise in the odour, and a complete lack of substantiation on the palate. Yes, I'm a wine fan. Liquorice I haven't touched since my first taste, although I acknowledge anise works in asian dishes because they get the ratios right. Raw oysters - just a few please.

Hi, I have an excess of egg whites as a result of a personal creme brulee cook-off, which I hope will cease tomorrow. By tomorrow I'll have 19 egg whites staring at me in my refrigerator (I've baked a pavlova today for the rellies). Are there recipes with high egg white components that are freezable? Admittedly I should be using them as egg-white omelettes for breakfast after trialling all the batches of creme brulee... And I really can't face eating 5 pavlovas... Thanks!

Batch 4 was not a success using the same recipe as batch 5, which was - I just used a different cooking technique. I went back to a long bake (not re-heating the tempered mix in a saucepan prior to baking) after reading material elsewhere on the change in texture that occurs with the same batch recipe over a short and long bake. Longer=creamier. Reheated+Shorter=more fragile and more likely to overcook (yeah, I can vouch for that, Batches 3+4, although I got it close to spot on with Batch 2). I gave Batch 5 a dual attempt - one with a half-height bath and foil over the whole container and the other with a 1/8th inch bath and ramekins individually foil sealed. After 60 minutes the half-height bath lot was a complete ruin with thoroughly scrambled egg and a whey underlayer. The 1/8th inch batch was a creamy success! I'll reduce the cook time to 50 minutes for Batch 6 as there was an ever so slightly overcooked top edge that I wasn't happy with. The perfectionist in me again. After Batch 6 I think I'll just pack it in. After eating 'creme' for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I've about had my dose for the next six months! Not to mention the three dozen egg whites sitting in my fridge...

Batch 2 taste and texture Yum - 3 1/2 year old son and I polished them off. However it was like a light, smooth sweet custard. Batch 3 - ohhh dear. Nope. Still tastes like custard and sets like custard - too set for a 'creme' for my tongue and I think if I reduce the eggs back by 1 in this 50/50 mixture it might be too close to a liquid to brulee. I'll have to try 3/4 cream and 1/4 milk for 'creme' texture. Back to 1tsp vanilla extract as I am now fairly confident the increased sugar is heightening its flavour somehow. Back to 4 eggs/500ml dairy to remove eggy-custard flavour. Stuck the batch in a higher pre-heated oven and was quicker about things so it curdled ever so slightly around the edges. EDIT: it curdled all the way through on most. Tried bruleeing with my domestic gas lighter HAH! Off to buy a proper torch.

Trial Batch 2 Comments: This modified recipe too eggy-custard-like in flavour rather than 'creme'. Using extract as a cheaper version while I'm experimenting with textures. Too much extract - added to custard-like flavour. Modified recipe: 6 yolks (will try with 5 next batch) from 69g free-range eggs ¼ cup caster sugar 2tsp vanilla extract (will try with 1 1/2 tsp next batch) 250ml cream 250ml milk Put the tempered strained mix back into the saucepan and brought to 75*C. (This decreased the baking time by more than half!) Zapped the remaining bubbles after straining/skimming with domestic gas lighter. Wow. It worked beautifully! Water-bathed 1/8th inch at 160*C in domestic gas oven with foil over each individual ramekin top, slightly vented at the side for 40 minutes. Set beautifully to 'jello' level evenly across the ramekin. Found that the one that was better sealed had a beautiful result. Have yet to taste+texture test final refrigerated version including checking surface thickness. Alanamoana: I may need to completely foil-cover the pan for moisture, but as I only have 1/2 inch high pans to work with, it was a little tricky to try whilst handling boiling water in a shallow pan. I'll have to get a deep roasting pan. On my wishlist at the sales after Xmas! Am I being a perfectionist? Probably.

After reading this whole merged thread to this point... I tried the Le Cirque recipe mentioned earlier in this thread last night. Found it very rich for my taste and it left substantial fatty residual on my tongue so will be attempting a '3/4 to 1/4' or '1/2 to 1/2' heavy cream and milk combo as I can't get half-and-half where I live in Australia. I'm assuming that to hold its texture with less cream fat content it'll need more yolks. So I'll add a couple. And more sugar - I found it too close to untreated cream for a straight dessert on its own. Perhaps Le Cirque regularly use other infusions and plating options that add to the overall flavour experience? I used the "quarter-size" wobble in the middle as my test point (took 1 hr 30 minutes to cook in taller ramekins), and they refrigerated overnight with fabulous texture by morning. I was surprised at the uniformity of the set in each ramekin particularly given the hot-spots in my domestic gas oven, which I attribute to nightscotsman's 1/8th inch waterbath 'heat-sink' concept which worked beautifully. I used foil lightly over the batch, however I will individually put foil over the next batch as I found the tops that were closer to the very loose edges of foil in my hot-spots in the gas oven started to bubble (although the texture underneath was perfect). I used everyones bubble-reduction ideas with the exception of the blow torch and the bang on the bench. So thanks. I'm going to attempt the next trial batch.

OK, I have been officially in Bake-Off mode this afternoon (in between jewellery creation). The left-overs of my last experiment went to two willing households. I've made a batch of Tejon's 28-Year-Old Chocolate Chip Cookies. HOORAY a cookie that 1) holds its shape to the right thickness 2) has a lower fat content than many 3) is easy to change the add-ins without substantially changing the texture 4) my husband has raided tonight 5) has massive amounts of chocolate in it!!! (I'm a closet chocaholic.) The detail for foodies: a) I used Nestle Chocolate Chips Dark and Lucky Californian Walnuts in half the batch, and Nestle White Chocolate Chips in the other half. The walnuts toasted fabulously, and the chips held their shape (as they are designed to do) - I'd be happy to try couverture chocolate again in this recipe for that melty finish. The white chocolate gave an ultra-sweet flavour, which is great if you have a sugar craving! b) I accidentally made the cookies twice the size and consequently ended up experimenting until I flattened them and cooked them for 16 minutes to come up with the same ideal as Tejon. I agree that walnut sized mounds are a good size for this recipe... especially if you use white chocolate. This is the first time I've tried an oatmeal chocolate chunk/chip cookie (rare combination in Australia), and while I like the overall flavour the texture was a bit grainy as I had to process the oats myself. All in all, a very satisfactory end to my day (and my husband's).

My attempt at this recipe created very flat pancake thickness softish, kind of chewy cookies, is this what they are supposed to be? I refrigerated the dough for the second bake from the same dough, cooked them for a bit longer hoping to get a crisp/chewy combo, and it baked out the same way. They puff up beautifully in the oven, spread to nearly triple width, and as soon as I took them out they all fell flat, flat, flat. I think if I cooked them for longer they'd turn into crisp cookies that better hold their shape but would be more like a tuile in texture in the end. I still have enough dough refrigerating right now for another 10 cookies... any ideas? I used bleached AP. I did cream the butter/sugar well, so that could be another thing to modify - keep it more like a flaky pastry concept I guess. I think what I'm looking for is a cookie that holds its shape more and is +1cm thick with chunks sticking out of it, with less fat. A cross between chewy/cakey in the middle? I found the quality 63% dark chocolate I used had too soft a texture during and after baking to keep chunks, although that could have been half due to the dough spreading so much? Maybe I need to use cheaper (but not really cheap) chocolate? Hmmm. Off to read recipes closely this time, I guess looking for a lower fat to flour content, and lower egg content for less fragility... and low/medium baking soda content for a more dense result. Here goes...

Hi, I'm a brand newie to couverture chocolate and had a fun and educational visit to your Chocolate Guild website - fabulous! I'm in Australia and haven't seen one of the chocolate brands mentioned on this thread here in the "banana republic" - is there anyone who could help me with, ideally, local (Aussie) suppliers please? I'm keen to begin taste-testing after reading all your posts... Thanks!

Thanks for these mouth-watering suggestions - I'm on my way to experiment with them!

Hi all, what are your best alcoholic frosting+cake combinations? Do you have a rare, unusual or secret mix you'd love to share?

Chicken Lasagne Serves 6 as Main Dish. This is a flavourful and high protein chicken lasagne invented on the fly for visitors with nightshade sensitivity. It excelled, and the visitors insisted on walking away with hand-written originals. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Chicken Mix 450 g Chicken thighs, finely diced 90 g Bacon, low fat, finely diced 1 Onion, small, finely diced 1 Celery stick, finely diced 2 Carrots, medium, peeled, finely diced Sweet Potato 1 Sweet potato (kumera), medium, peeled, finely sliced rounds Roux 3 T Plain (AP) Flour 50 g Butter 3 c Milk, low/no fat 3/4 c Tasty cheese, low fat, grated Cheese Mix 400 g Ricotta, low fat 400 g Cottage cheese, low fat 1/2 c Tasty cheese, low fat, grated 40 g Parmesan, grated 1 Egg, x-large 1 T Basil, very finely chopped Lasagne 6 Lasagne sheets, fresh Chicken Mix Fry chicken and bacon until cooked. Saute onion and celery in butter until translucent. Boil carrots to nearly done. Combine these all together. Sweet Potato Boil sweet potato slices until just done. (Use a large frypan to keep slices intact.) Roux Melt butter in saucepan over low/medium heat, add flour, mix until forms ball. Add 1/4 cup of milk, stir until it forms paste. Keep adding milk a little at a time, stirring continuously until all milk is added and mixture has thickened to a mornay consistency. Stir in cheese, then add Chicken Mix in. Cheese Mix Combine all Cheese Mix ingredients in a bowl. Layering Use disposable foil lasagne container. - 1/3rd Chicken mixture - 2 Lasagne sheets, side-by-side - All of the sweet potato slices - All of the cheese mix - 2 Lasagne sheets, side-by-side - 1/3rd Chicken mixture - 2 Lasagne sheets, side-by-side - 1/3rd Chicken mixture - Top with tasty cheese Bake Bake uncovered in preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 50-60 minutes. Keywords: Chicken, Dinner, Intermediate, Pasta ( RG2149 )