KennethT

Use fresh wheat noodles (like fresh linguine) - fry in 375-380F oil... this is the traditional method and works great. If you want more of a puffed noodle (not traditional, but still tasty) you have to go through a bunch of steps... 1) Boil the noodles until it is way overdone and almost falling apart. 2) Gently transfer to a rack and dehydrate until plastic-y - like a shrinky-dink 3) Fry a few at a time in 375-380F oil - should puff very quickly after hitting the oil

We get grapeseed oil at Trader Joe's. Fairway...

Also not a fan of Canola... I get the fishy-ness too.. not so much with the raw oil, but when using it for saute - even though it's supposed to have a high smoke point, it gets fishy fast! I wonder if the fishiness comes from it's high Omega-3 content? I think it's commonly recommended because it is supposedly neutral and is supposed to be healthy. In "A Return to Cooking" Eric Ripert commonly uses it in dressings mixed with olive oil - he uses it because olive oil alone can be too thick, and the canola has a lower viscosity. Personally, I use peanut oil for deep frying - it's high temp, lasts for many fries and I like the complexity it can add... For high temp saute, I usually use grapeseed oil which is high temp and very neutral. Olive oil for lower temp shallow fries and dressings - with quality varying depending on application.

Let me reclarify my Blaue Gans recommendation - I like certain things there, but other than those, I could take or leave it. I like the palatschinken, their wurst plates (although Katja's are just as good and a better value), and the schnitzel. That's about it... sometimes they'll have a sauteed fish dish which is usually pretty good, but nothing necessarily Austrian about it. What I liked most was the fact we could make a reservation (usually same day) and get there and not have to wait. I loved Katja, but haven't gone as often as I'd have liked just because I never knew if we'd be able to get a seat when we could get there (unless we went early) and I didn't want to wait a long time for a seat. I haven't been back since the renovation, but I would like to get there soon to check it out - it's very tasty and a great value, especially if you can get seats pretty easily. Especially if they'll be serving schnitzel!

I was there about 8 months ago... very underwhelmed by it... It was really cool to be in a "secret" place, but once we got over that, that was it. I thought the best part about it was their toilet (they had a Toto washlet with built in massage function). My friend got the resy by emailing them, they got back to him a week or two later with a choice of dates/times. For the most part, the menu was ok - nothing was bad, but nothing was standout great either. The service was weird - the waiter would disappear for large blocks of time at a time, always when we happened to need something - more water, another drink, etc. Also, the table we were seated at was more like a cocktail table rather than standard table - so it was very low, and uncomfortable to eat anything other than a snack at. But that's the majority of their tables - they only have a couple of tables that are standard tables. I got their card as we were leaving, but I don't know what I did with it - I think I may have thrown it out after my wife and I decided that we didn't want to bother giving it another shot.

It gives me a headache just to walk by Rolf's... even when it's not Christmas-time....

I'm surprised Weinoo hasn't chimed in yet, but a great choice is Cafe Katja on Orchard st. In the LES. Personally, I also like Blaue Gans, a KB restaurant like Wallse but casual and less expensive.

I don't know if that's lightly enough!!! For a cup of liquid, I'd use a tiny bit - like what fits on the point of a sharp knife. To disperse, while whisking, add gradually and then keep whisking for a bit after... I find a good way to add xanthan by eye is to use a salt or powdered sugar shaker. While whisking, I add a small dash (that winds up getting scattered over the surface) at a time and whisk until completely incorporated. Let sit for a little bit, then repeat as needed.

If you use xanthan, tread LIGHTLY!!! It's amazing how little you need before things turn into a mucousy mess... Plus, I've found it takes a little while to hydrate, so if you're adding by eye, go little by little and give some time inbetween to see the full strength... and, to see how thick it is, don't keep stirring - let it sit for a bit, then when you stir once you can see how thick it is.

The pump you talk about that required ice was an aspirator vacuum pump - works the same way as the faucet aspirator, but recycles the water so you don't waste tons of it. The ice is used because the cold water will result in a stronger vacuum. I don't know what kind of rotovap they have (I can't wait to see it!) but many modern ones use a vacuum pump that does not use water - like a diaphragm pump since you can get much greater vacuum than you can with an aspirator pump. Looking forward to what you ladies come up with this week!!!

Agar agar is easy to find - many groceries in Chinatown have it, but if you're further up, you can get it at Kalustyan's on Lex. and 28th St. Powdered gelatin can be found in most supermarkets, but I don't know whether MCAH calls for leaf or powdered gelatin and the conversion can be tricky. Leaf gelatin can be found at NY cake and Baking on 22nd(?) and 6th Ave. or at Kalustyan's... of course... For any other NYCers, Kalustyans is building quite a little modernist pantry - they now carry things like Versawhip, to sodium alginate, to different calcium salts, etc...

you can use gelatin, but if you want a hot foam, I would tend to use a fluid gel with agar, or one of the other modern thickeners.

Thanks - I think I stumbled on them before, but I was unclear whether it's whole loose flowers, or in tea bags... it doesn't say tea bags specifically, so I dont' know why I originally assumed so... I wonder if there's a price premium on it since it's supposed to be so "healthy" and chock full of antioxidants which is a huge buzzword nowadays. I also couldn't find on their site where they are located, or where they ship from for that matter... but I will email my questions to them... Thanks for the help!

Personally, I"m not a fan of salting before doing long SV... I did it for a few years, then at some point started cooking unseasoned, and then season right before searing or serving (if not searing). I find the meat gets a bit tougher - almost cured texture when seasoning prior to a long cook. Dave Arnold agrees - one of his more recent posts (cookingissues.com) does a comparison of salting pre and post SV.

I'm looking to find these dried blue pea flowers, sometimes called Butterfly pea flowers, to make some Nonya Kueh I've been longing for since my trip to Singapore. I've looked in Manhattan chinatown (specifically the pan-SEasia place on Mulberry) - I didn't check Bangkok Center grocery since when I was there, I didn't realize the Thai also use it... maybe when I get a chance I can run down there... In any case, does anyone know where else to get them, or a good place online that might have them? I've done the basic google searches, and came up mostly with seeds to grow the plant, and a few places selling the dried flowers, but they're located in Europe or in Thailand... One place in the US that I found was selling a minimum of 50g (that's a lot of dried flowers) for like $40+shipping, which is more than I'd like to spend.

I always make my roux with peanut oil, as opposed to butter, and it gets DARK.... No caramelization there....

Is gas that expensive in CA? Seems like the price is like $7.75 a gallon (using an exchange rate of 1.3 and a rough estimate of 4l per gallon.

I think the problem is that if you bring your PC up to the point where it starts venting, then back off the heat a bit so it stops venting, at that point, you'll be very close to full pressure (and full temp) but won't vent - but you don't know as time goes on what's happening inside - your pressure/temp. could be dropping by the minute, so you'll never really know how much time you had at full pressure. I have a Kuhn Rikon non venting stockpot. The directions say to bring it to full pressure, then immediately turn down the heat - and if your burner has residual heat, to transfer to a different burner and turn on low. I do the second one because otherwise I get over pressured if I leave on the same burner and turn to low (and it's a gas range which shouldn't have much latent heat, but oh well). But once I transfer burners, I have to keep an eye on it becasue "low" on my range is too low, and over time I can watch the pressure dropping in the spring valve. My point is - with a spring valve, I can see that my pressure is dropping and adjust accordingly... but with a venting PC, once you're below the vent pressure, you don't know how much lower you are - you could be just below, or way below.

What's the purpose of the apple?

I've eaten SV confit that has been at the bottom of my fridge for half a year... not that I'd recommend that to everyone, but on the SV thread, I once asked the question and got some very good answers by the likes of Douglas Baldwin (who has studied bacteria stuff in great detail). Basically, depending on what temp. you used, and how long it was there, and how cold your fridge is, it technically can stay there indefinitely. BTW - I keep my refrigerator VERY cold - so teh bottom is borderline freezing - in fact, if I put a small pot of water there, after a few days, I'll see a thin sheet of ice on top or on the sides.

If you kept the pie refrigerated, would the foam still deflate? I'd imagine it deflated at room temp as the gelatin lost its structure. Do they talk about other hydrocolloids in the book, or is their discussion limited to the main, easily obtainable ones? (gelatin, agar, etc.)

I'm not an expert baker by any means - I actually do very little baking - but I seem to remember cooling certain types of cakes with lots of leavening (I'm looking at you, angel food cake) upside down. That way, the structure remains as it cools since gravity is not trying to defeat it...

I've heard wasabiisreally finicky and hard to grow... Can't wait to hear about your experience.

The bar at Acme does some really interesting cocktails as well, plus the food there is awesome!

I've read decent write-ups about the aerogarden - not so much about the light, but about the hydro part... it's a good intro to hydroponics... but yes, the light isn't beefy enough... I use a "daylight spectrum" CFL 24/7 when growing starts - up until the first couple of weeks of growth... leafy plants love it. Lettuce and other herbs will actually grow quite well (and a lot faster) when under the lights 24 hours per day. Can't do it for flowering plants, and some plants after several weeks get a little shocked... but things like lettuce, basil and other quickly harvested plants do great.