KennethT

There was a topic like this in the Cooking Issues forums... I wound up making a fruit glue out ofLMA pectin and mango purée. But you can use any fruit and add calcium as needed.

Last year I grew a Goose Creek tomato plant in the spot where the Robeson is now. Those were probably the best tomatoes I've ever had, but sadly they were unavailable this year, and unfortunately I didn't save any of the seeds. The GK was a good learning experience - once the plant got to be about 5 feet tall (up to the ceiling) I had the great idea to top it so it would stop growing..... Hmmffff it had other ideas and turned into a giant bush with tomatoes lurking everywhere. It took over the entire corner of the apartment and threatened to take over the whole thing until it roots grew into the nutrient fluid fill hole completely clogging it. One day I came home from work to a flood of about 15 gallons of nutrient liquid on the floor! It looked like a small pond in the middle of my living room. Suffice it to say Ihad no choice but to kill the plant to find and eventually fix the problem. Now, a few modifications to the system later and hopefully I won't have that experience again. So yes, it can definitely be a challenge, but it's lots of fun!

So I finally got around to taking pics of my urban garden.. very small, but considering there's only 2 of us, it works out well - plus part of it is still in progress.. the nice thing about doing things indoors is that you can continue to start and plant things all year long... This is a Paul Robeson heirloom tomato - it's about 2-3 weeks old. Got the start from Laurel's. This weekend, I'm going to attach a string to the ceiling and train it up the string as support. It should produce about 5-6 tomatoes a week for the next 8-10 months. Dwarf lime tree - probably about 7 years old - bears standard sized limes. It was having root rot problems for a while until I discovered the miracle of Hygrozyme, and now it's much better and it's the first time I'm letting it fruit in about a year. L-R: Rouge Grenobloise Batavian lettuce - I actually harvested half of the head last Monday, and it's basically grown back to full size since then; Basil; Thai basil. On the way (not pictured) is rosemary, french thyme, fl parsely, more lettuce, tarragon, cilantro, etc... In the past, in this setup, I grew Gailan, bok choi, arugula and some oddities like chocolate mint, variegated lemon geranium, coconut geranium, and lime thyme. Mint is a bad idea in this setup because the roots wind up taking over the whole trough.

I'm sure it was posted at some point before, but I can't find it now.... anyone have good temp for turkey breast that will be sliced cold and used for sandwiches?

I've had green mango in Thailand - it's awesome, especially when dusted with salt, chili powder and a little sugar, or dipped into fermented shrimp paste... wish I could find it here...

frozen crawfish tails are very common, and I'm sure they're not frozen with LN. All of the frozen ones I've seen are completely precooked in the shell, then shelled and frozen. BTW, when I make a Louisiana style crawfish boil, I could eat 5 pounds of crawfish by myself!

I assume you're talking about potted cilantro, grown indoors, right? If so, I've found that the biggest thing that gets it to bolt is if it gets too hot. Contrary to what I've always heard - that cilantro likes full sun - I've had best indoor results when I keep it in partial sun, and I keep a fan on it so it doesn't get too hot. I find over 78degF or so, and it bolts. ETA: re: insecticide, I like a product called Azamax (made by General Hydroponics) or any other version/brand of azadirachtin. It is OMRI listed, and has no residue, so it can be used even on the day of harvest. It can be used as a foliar spray, but also as a root drench, and is effective on most pests from aphids, mites, scales, etc. I have an indoor lime tree that this stuff has saved over and over again. It's a little expensive, but to me, totally worth it.

Right - even if vacuum sealed again, 2 days in the refrigerator should be no problem...

If the meal is only 2 days away and your refrigerator is moderately cold, I'd say that you're fine leaving in the fridge as is. I would probably wrap each portion in a few layers of plastic wrap and leave in the fridge...

What type of sheet are you looking for? What is the structure like? Is it flexible or brittle? Chewy or soft or crisp?

I wonder if the fishy smell was coming from a slight rancidity of the pork fat, since it was in the freezer for so long, effectively unwrapped?

Thanks for the responses so far... Weinoo - I knew that Despana used a ciabatta for their bocadillos, but I haven't tried them yet and didn't realize that they were different than the standard ciabatta (which has a more dense, chewier crust). I actually had a very nice version at Boqueria recently which had a nice, crisp light crust, but I neglected to ask them for their source. Thanks for the info Joe, but if I can source a well made RTE product, I'd rather use that rather than making my own at this point in time... but I'll definitely keep the info on hand in case I get more time and want to have some fun!

eG member Scottyboy does just this in the SF area, and from his foodblog, his stuff looks great!

I'm on the hunt for "Catalan" style bread - I don't know what else to call it... I guess it's sort of like a ciabatta, but very light with a crisp crust - not dense or chewy.

82C is very high for pork. What cut are you using? I like chicken wings cooked in a 62C bath for 12 hours, then fried. I tend to do legs and thighs in a 64C bath for 1.5 hours. Chicken wings at 60C for 24 hours is incredible - you can actually slide the bones out afterwards,making a boneless wing. Just be careful, the meat is really delicate!

I just googled Boca di Dama and there are a lot of references... including YouTube videos with how-to... that should help....

So, just an update of what's been going on, and a question... So, I changed my cake from being citrus scented, to hazelnut. I did a lot of searching online, and saw a bunch of recipes that looked ok, then made some tweaks and came up with this: 10 eggs, separated 1/2# toasted hazelnuts, cooled then ground 1C sugar 2T matzoh cake flour pinch salt Whip the yolks with the sugar Whip in MC flour Fold in ground nuts Whip whites to stiff, fold into yolk mixture Bake 350F, 50min or so Being that I have such little experience with baking, I went to the baking supply store and bought a new "non stick" square pan whose shape would work well for my application. While washing it, it definitely seemed non stick as the water would just bead up on it. I didn't grease or paper the pan, hoping the non-stickiness would be enough, but, the cake practically welded itself to the bottom and sides of the pan! Should I grease or paper the pan, or both? In what order? Since I can't use butter, should I use shortening, margarine or oil? Also, while the cake is nice and moist, it's a bit heavy - do you think I could lighten up on a yolk or two, and add an extra corresponding quantity of white to lighten it a bit?

Kevin, I'm sure you've read this already, but just in case you haven't the Cooking Issues guys have done extensive testing/writing on shaking vs stirring / dilution, effects of carbonation, etc...

That's what I was thinking - thanks for your confirmation, Chris. I didn't know that the flavor would change over time - I haven't tasted it since last week - curious to see what has happened...

I made an Herve This style chocolate mousse last weekend - it is an emulsion of only coffee and chocolate - and it has been in my refrigerator all week. For how long will it still be safe to eat? Is there something in there that can go bad? There are two different versions - the details of which are: Mousse 1: 150g bittersweet chocolate 120g coffee Mousse 2: 150g bittersweet chocolate 140g coffee

Thanks for the advice! I have several recipes that I'm looking at for the cake portion (some from recipeGullet, and some from previous passover baking threads) - but it's always good to get more suggestions and ideas. Also, I was just wondering what other people are doing this year... I know I'm a couple weeks early, but it's never early to start planning, right?

Thank you, but I'm not talking about the regular zip loc freezer bags (which I've used for 72 hour short ribs and the like), but rather the zip loc vacuum bags that have both a zip seal at the edge and a one way vacuum valve through which you can pump out air. It's that valve that I'm concerned about. Here's the product page for what I'm talking about http://www.ziploc.com/Products/Pages/VacuumFreezerSystem.aspx I've used these with no problems... if I'm nervous, after sucking the air out, I"ll stick a piece of duct tape over the valve.

I've decided to bake for Passover this year, as I'm sick of waiting on a long line, paying a LOT of money for a really crappy, dry aweful cake to bring to seder.... I have been planning a layer cake with the cake parts being lemon scented and the filling as a Herve This inspired dairy-free mousse - it's basically an emulsion of chocolate and some liquid - in my case I'm using a nice coffee. I did some experiments this weekend with the filling, using two different brews, and then varying the ratio of chocolate:coffee to get the texture I was looking for. I've read a lot about these types of mousses but have never made them myself, but I'm amazed at how well the technique works. Light, fluffy, and really intensely flavored. I am thinking of using the technique to make the frosting as well, just changing the liquid ratio to make it a bit stiffer, and maybe I'll sweeten it a touch more, since I"m using 70% chocolate that's not very sweet. I haven't baked a cake in a long time - and I don't think I've ever done a passover cake - does anyone have any ideas to make a sponge cake that is dairy free, (eggs are ok) and kosher for passover that's not dry and crumbly? I was thinking maybe some type of almond/olive oil cake, but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

Have you tried subbing tarragon for thyme? To me, one of the best combinations in the world is morels, butter, tarragon and cognac.

There's a lot of advantages to steam ovens - high end restaurants use them for lots of things - but I don't know about the Wolf model. It doesn't seem like you can control the humidity inside, like you can for a Rational CombiOven, which would be a true steam oven, but it's hard to tell from the Wolf literature.