TheSwede

You definitely want to add the corn starch at the end, but it won't lose it's thickening effect in any dramatic way if you boil it for a while. Also you want to boil it for at least a little while to get it smoth and glossy. Cornstarch doesn't have the raw starch taste of of ordinary flour but it still needs to be coked a little bit.

You had me worried for a while... It is amazing how easy it is to get a nice browning on confited pork. Just a couple of minutes in a frying pan for crisp golden exterior and molten hot interior...

Don't you eat the wonderful crispy skin? When I'm about to eat my confited (or braised) pork belly, I fry it in a pan starting with the skin side down. Crisps up really easy.

Another tip (from Peterson I belive) is to "freshen up" the stock before serving (in whatever form you are going to serve it) with a handful of mirepoix and some fresh herbs which gets to simmer for a couple of minutes.

Bread baking also uses rules of thumb when it comes to salting. 1-2% perhaps?

They seem to carry both Texturas and Sosa products. Good link, thanks.

Thanks for the new recipe! I especially like that you have converted to weight measurements. Perhaps you should add that post to the end of the tutorial?

I think they are almost always removable. You will have to find a way of fastening the unit to a pot though, and the models with a shallow immersion part (like the one above) would need a very full pot.

Proofing is the first "fermentation", right? I actually seldom get that wonderful newly baked bread smell when I bake, although the final taste is always ok.

Since Sosa is a spanish firm specializing in hydrocolloids for making pastries/desserts I think you have have the answer there. I got their catalogue by mailing and asking nicely. Glossy paper, four color and lots of recipes.

Then they are Burgundy truffles (!), which is a variety that has less developed aroma and taste than black Perigord truffles but still has culinary use. I bough fresh locally (swedish) grown burgundy truffles a couple of months ago. They were very good shaved over a risotto. Price was actually a little bit less than what Wegman charged. Stockholm's most prestigeous resturant at the moment, Mathias Dahlgren at Grand Hotel, serves the local burgundy truffles when they are in season. Part of the "locally grown, seasonal" movement of course.

If you bought real black french winter truffles (Tuber Melansporum), I belive the price was pretty decent. My local store charges the double, although their markup is always pretty steep.

... When I first made lean artisanal breads, my doughs were very sticky, really unhandleable. Over the years I've learned to sacrifice some wetness for a dough that's easier to handle and shape. The breads still turn out well. ← Thanks for the advice. I don't bake that often, but when I do I usually aim for (but never reach..) that perfect artisanal sourdough bread. I actually did my fist sourdough-only bread the other week following jackals excellent tutorial here on eGullet. Turned out pretty well, but not perfect. A slightly sour/off smell when baking, a little bit too flat and not enough large holes in the crumb. Taste and texture was good though.

Ok, so I've heard some suggestions here in the upmarket category: Foliage, River Café, Magdalen, Wild Honey, Hereford Road, St John Am I missing something?

Thanks for the suggestions - please keep them coming! I would love to try some "hard core" chinese and indian resturants. For more upmarket dining, you tend to hear some names floating around like Tom Aikens, Pied a Terre...?

Thanks, will definitely try with a little oil next time.

← These types extracts are (or used to be) quite popular here in Sweden, although not necessarily because of their great taste. Rather because high alcohol taxes made home distilling something of an (illegal) national sport. Our membership in the European Union has made the import of alcohol significantly easier and thus lowered prices, so it is less of an issue nowadays. I think my mother sometimes made punsch from that particular extract. It was not that bad, but not nearly as good as the real stuff made from arrak.

Jackal, I noticed in your very instructive video that the dough didn't stick to your fingers, work surface, arms, elbows etc etc like mine always does. Is that because you work with a dough that is less wet than mine or because you cover each piece of dough with enough flour to make it non sticky on the surface? In general, my doughs are wet enough to basically stick to anything like crazy. That makes them quite hard to work with (a pain really), but I'm somehow gotten the impression that wetter equals better when it comes to doughs.

I'm going to spend six weeks in London starting mid March and hopefully I will have the opportunity to visit a lot of interesting resturants. But I really need the inputs from the members of this forum: Where would you take a food interested friend who came to visit London for a couple of weeks? Where would you take him if he was paying? I'm open to all suggestions, both the high and low! /Chris

Since you recooked them, it shouldn't be a problem. If the pork is now stored in fat without air access you should be perfectly safe.

The hard part is keeping your hands off it for a week or so while flavours develop...

If you are using red wine or red port, I would suggest you stay away from the cream or variations thereof, since it is very easy to create strange colours (like pink...). Taste will be fine with cream, but stock, butter and perhaps a little starch (if needed) will create a much more estethic sauce.

Yep, it melts in the hot water, water evaporates, meat starts to carmelize. Brown to taste, pot. I don't think you have to be that particular what cuts of pork you use as long as you have anough fat. I used "thick cut" ribs (no idea what the US name is) and pulled out the bones once it was time to shred.

Xantan is on my "must buy" list, especially since it works equally well on hot and cold liquids. I bet it is cheaper in the local health shop than from the El Bulli Texturas brand... Any online sources (especially in Europe)?

Sorry, no. But as Docsconz says, some of the courses were shown at the Madrid Fusion conference. You will find some photos there. I do have this debate with myself every time I'm to parttake in a better meal: Should I review or should I indulge? For me, they are somewhat mutually exclusive. Indulge wins every time... Friday in two weeks I will hopefully dine at new hotshot restaurant Franzen-Lindeberg. They serve a 20 course tasting menu definitely inspired by Alinea/WD-50/El Bulli. I can't promise any photos, but I will do my best to post some impressions.