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TheSwede

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Everything posted by TheSwede

  1. Not everything Alinea is super complicated. I did the potato and truffles hot and cold (forgot the exact name, but it is cold potato soup with hot parisienne potatoes and truffles) from the website and that was both easy and pretty quick.
  2. Do you have a recipe (or just general guidelines/percentages) for the paté de fruit margarita?
  3. When I have used tapioca pearls, I've first cooked them the normal way in water and then let them steep for a couple of hours in whatever flavouring/coloring I wanted. That way they end up translucent with a tint of the color used. Cooking them directly in eg beet juice will work of course, but will probably result in a very intense deep purple/black color.
  4. Not to beat a dead horse here, but tapioca pearls are just so pretty. They look very very much like real fish roe and they just soak up color. A dash of soy sauce, some rice vinegar and a little sugar and you get a nice smoky red/brown color and excellent taste and texture.
  5. TheSwede

    blue cheese sauce

    A bit of starch (arrow root/corn starch slurry) can probably keep it from breaking. But you need to boil it briefly to "develop" the starch. Or you could use a "high tech" solution like a little bit of Xantan gum. No need for boiling then. The third way is to keep it on low heat until you need it, but that might have health aspects if you do it for a long time. Personally, I would use the Xantan. Introducing starch deadens the flavours a bit, but Xantan is (reputedly - no side by side tests done by me) much better.
  6. In theory, one shouldn't eat russian caviar. They are not exactly practicing sustainable fishing on those sturgeons and there is an import ban on russian caviar to the EU. Iranian caviar is fine though. This is just FYI. I eat foie gras and has probably had some russian caviar during the last few years so I'm not one to judge.
  7. Tapioca pearls works nicely as faux caviar. They also take on both color and flavour easily. There is a tapioca thread over in the Pastry forum.
  8. TheSwede

    Panda Express

    Especially since this is the "Ready to Eat" (aka Fast Food) Forum. Pointing out that Panda Express doesn't serve authentic chinese food probably won't surprise anyone... Their Orange Chicken is still very tasty, in a slightly greasy fast food way.
  9. Don't forget that it can be tremendously fun, inspiring and creative working together with someone who is (also) good at what they do. Don't just look at the negatives.
  10. These are fresh italian summer truffles and the price (equivalent to approx 300 EUR/kg) seems perfectly ok - pretty good even. Probably not a bad buy for someone who wants to do some cooking with truffles. Summer truffles have less intense aroma and taste than real black truffles, but they are also much cheaper. Just use more!
  11. Visited one star restaurant F12 last week. Finally managed to go with dining companions I could bully into trying the "innovative" tasting menu. Also had the wine menu. Overall a splendid experience with some fun twists (lobster, lobster jelly and gazpacho served with a drinking straw, terrific chicken served with popcorns and corn kernels, wine menu served as a blind tasting etc). However, there were some strange choices and/or execution errors: The two first courses (Shrimp, Lobster) were both pretty acidic. It would have been nice with some sort of break between them. The pig cheek and the turbot (I think it were) both came with a beige-ish puré. Tasted nice and definitely not the same puré, but strange to serve something so similar looking and similar textured to two courses in a row. The chicken (or rather the popcorns) were overly salty. That was the only actual error, the other stuff above is just nitpicking. I finished the chicken (wich was perfectly fine) anyway and just ate sparingly of the pocorns. I didn't bother telling the kitchen about it until afterwards. I had a great time and the food is definitely on par with what is served at Esperanto (perhaps even better than my last visit there) and Leijontornet. The menu (besides amuses, three of them that I've forgotten and the canapées) was as follows: SWEDISH RAW SHRIMPS «tiradito» with salicorn and rice crispies BRETAGNE LOBSTER «on the rocks» with verbena and grilled chili PIG CHEEK «couvert» with sour plums and F12 caviar TURBOT «boutarga» with sea urchin and parsley sprouts FARM CHICKEN «pop corn» with truffle and curry GOAT’S CHEESE «snickers» with caramelized peanut and sour fudge PEACH «pressé» with jasmine and dried raspberries 1095:-SEK /119€
  12. TheSwede

    Making Bacon

    I'm pretty sure that in Ruhlman recipe (quoting from memory here), you first rinse off the cure and then rest/dry for 12-24 hours (?). Presumably this both develops the dry surface you want and also distributes the cure more evenly internally. In my single (successful) attempt at making bacon I didn't notice that the edges were significantly more salty.
  13. The composition of pink salt (#1) is in the book. Here in Europe we often use saltpeter instead of #2. That I can buy in some larger supermarkets here. Perhaps it is the same in South America?
  14. Hey, thanks, I'll give it a go. ← I've done it too. I froze seasoned egg yolks and filled ravioli with them, then froze the ravioli. Cooked the ravioli straight from the freezer. The timing is a bit tricky, but it is very doable to get perfectly cooked ravioli and liquid yolks. Actually, in my very limited experience, the pasta cooks before the yolks thaw, but that obvioulsy depends on the amount of yolk. Not my idea though, borrowed straight from the Ideas in Food blog.
  15. It is very hard to judge the color of the end product in those jars. Was it totally water clear?
  16. That is so beautiful! What is that rolled thing lurking in the background? Pancetta? Give us more details. How did you do the drying/fermentation? Are the receipes straight from the book?
  17. I'm a little suprised by the conservative dishes served by Carre des Feuillants. But of course there still is a market for classical french food served at a very high standard.
  18. TheSwede

    Sirloin Oscar

    The dish is actually swedish in origin - or at least composed to honour the swedish king Oscar II (1829 - 1907). The meat should be filét of veal and the garnishes should be bearnaise, aspargus and lobster claw meat. The idea is to arrange the garnishes so they form a the royal monogram: an "O" of bearnaise, a roman II from aspargus across the O. No idea where the lobster goes. According to Swedish wikipedia, the dish was invented at Grand Hotel in Stockholm and the original garnishes was Sauce Choron (bearnaise with tomato), white aspargus, lobster claw meat and black truffles, but the article doesn't give any sources.
  19. I think the best dish I have ever produced in my kitchen is slow braised pork belly with seared scallops, buttery potato puré and a madeira reduction. I braised the pork belly in madeira, stock and spices until very very tender, cooled it under pressure (to produce a nice flat piece) and sliced it in neat squares. Defatted the braising liquid and reduced it to a sauce. Seared the belly cubes until crisp on the outside and melting inside and did the same with the scallops. Dressed the plates with a little sauce, alternating pieces of belly and scallops in a neat row and a quenelle of potato puré at the end. Not that complicated but very very good. The dish was very much inspired by a dish from Gordon Ramsey at Royal Hospital Road where they serve braised pork belly, langoustine tails and creamed parsley with a madeira reduction.
  20. Marble IS classical for all kinds of pastry work. At Le Cordon Bleu in London we had it on all counter tops, but you only actually worked directly on it when you did pastry.
  21. TheSwede

    Gelatin Conversion

    Martin Lersh's brilliant book on hydrocolloids (http://khymos.org/recipe-collection.php) will answer all your agar agar related questions.
  22. Working the "dough" a bit should make the proteins bind together and create a firmer texture. Smacking it against the side of the bowl is an interesting variation - will that create a different texture?
  23. Cactus Blue in Brompton Road. No idea if it is good or not (I've only had a couple of beers and some nachos there), but if you travel from the US to London to eat mexican, food quality is probably not a major concern. The bar is ok though, a bit expensive but not more expensive than a lot of other places in Chelsea.
  24. http://www.gaggenau.com/GB_en/Modular-Cook...tField=feature2 (about the VI 421 'domino' induction hob) ← According to the actual manual (available on the site), it turns off the effect (and flashes a small led) when no pot is present but it doesnt turn off for real.
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