sygyzy

Well, looks like my charm was enough. Say what?

Sorry to resurrect this thread. Does anyone know the chef's criteria for granting diners invite privileges? I am dining there soon and want as much insight as I can get.

I really want to order from Perfect Purees but I'll be spending around $100 before tax for a minimum order. $30 on shipping alone. qzina sounds like a good idea though I don't think they have a warehouse here on the Central Coast. I am not sure how you even came across a wholesale outfit like them in the first place. Impressive.

I wish I had a "butcher's supply store" near me! Thanks for the info everyone.

This one is on my 'to-do' list and I was just looking over it the other day. 'Medium High' is pretty darned hot, are you sure you weren't too cautious with the heat? I feel like she wants you to cook it at hot enough temperature where if you left it without stirring it would burn. What kind of pan did you use? I feel like a non-stick skillet might not work as well here... Either way, I promise I will try this one in the next week and report back on how it goes! ← I did use a non-stick pan and I probably used low-med. Now that I think about it, I suspect the problem is with the lean ground pork that I bought. Unfortunately, it's the only kind available.

I'd love to find a source locally that carries it. (Santa Barbara, CA)

9" All-Clad French Pan from my roommates. Needless to say, completely surprised!

Disclaimer: Yes, I searched and I feel terrible asking because I know you can get it at a few places like Cooking.com but they seem awfully expensive. I am just looking for supplies to make boquet garni and tie up the occasional osso bucco. What's a good all around kitchen supplier? I used to think Cooking.com was great but half the time I get results from them, they are sold by a different vendor (sort of like how Amazon is sometimes). Anyway, question is - bouquet garni supplies. Where? In the meantime, here's a little trick I have been using. Take a tea strainer (not one with a handle, but one that would be used for making, say, a large pot of iced tea) and use it for your bouquet. The mesh filter is so fine nothing gets past it and you can easily fish it out. It also never bursts open the way bouquets from Keller's Bouchon cookbook (he instructs you to wrap leek leaves around your herbs and spices) do.

Hmm I have plenty of alternate sugars. What's the ratio for substitution, by weight?

alanamoana - You are quickly becoming my cooking fairy godmother .. or something like that. Thank you for your patience and wealth of information. I didn't know about the temperature thing. Now I will use my thermometer to guide me. I did leave the anglaise (thanks, I forgot the word) overnight. And honestly, the texture is not that bad. There aren't any crystals or anything. The only con is perhaps it froze too hard so when you are scooping it, it's not a nice smooth curl like you see in the commercials. I did not use any vanilla, bean or extract. I used fresh mint for the flavor. I did strain into an ice bath and stirred while cooling. Looks like I did everything mostly right except for the anglaise. I will try again soon once this batch runs out.

long enough to thicken (should be boiling, like hot lava), but not long enough to break down the starch. remember also that pastry cream is really only good for about 2-3 days, after that it will break down and start to weep. ← How can you tell the starch is broken down? How do you know when you've reached that point?

Try a local grocery store. Even if they don't sell the purees to the general public, they might be willing to sell you a single container if one of their suppliers carry it. At twice the price, of course... ← Thanks for the tip. I will try one of the nicer stores in town like Gelson's. Is there any minimum requirement of ratios I should look for? Like 10% sugar, 5% pectin, etc.

I made the minced pork recipe from "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" and I couldn't get it to brown/caramelize correctly. I even added another dosing of caramel water and it didn't really help. I wanted it to be shiny and brown but it was a dull color and started burning because I kept cooking, insisting time would help it along. Any tips? P.S. It doesn't say in the book but my mom has always served this with slices of cucumber (and rice, of course). Try it.

Moto's Donut Soup?

Well, since I hadn't made ice cream in a number of years, I wanted to just try the recipe without alterations. When I was heating the mixture for it to thicken, I guess I looked away for too long because the next thing I knew, there were chunks in it! I turned off the heat and starting whisking rapidly which dissolved most of it. I strained the rest and some chunks remained. The end texture is very good and has a slight hint of mint (tastes very fresh but I will use more mint next time). However, it smells very eggy. Like I am drinking eggnog or something. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I'd like my ice cream to smell like the flavor or vanilla, not like eggs.

Does anyone have a better source for fruit puree besides L'Epicerie? They require a min order of 4 containers and they only last a week. I'd have to make enough pate de fruits for a busy candy store to need that much.

Thanks for your responses everyone. So what have we learned here? 1. Use alot less corn startch. 2. Constantly whisk. 3. Did we agree on a scale (length or visual indicator) for how long to cook?

Hi, I have: Acacia Gum Sodium Citrate Sodium Alginate Egg White Powder Xanthan Gum Isomalt Glucose Pectin NH Calcium Lactate Maltodextrin Soy Lecithin Calcium Chloride Versawhip 600K Citric Acid Agar Agar Carregeenan Methocel F50 What can I use to improve ice cream, in any way?

A few weeks ago I made the raspberry napoleans from the Bouchon cookbook. Everything turned out ok and tastes great but was not very visually appealing. I left the puff pastry too long in the oven, which burnt it, but I can deal with and easily fix that. The thing that upset me the most was the pastry cream. I made it exactly according to the recipe and everything was working right on schedule and quite boring until all of a sudden the mixture got really thick and bubbled. I think that's when the temperature hit the point where the cornstarch kicked in. Anyway, I whisked feverously and made sure there were no lumps. Then I poured it into a metal brownie pan (faster cooling) and placed plastic wrap down, touching the surface. Later (or maybe the next day), when I returned to finish the napoleons, I noticed the pastry cream was set. It reminded me exactly of polenta that I pour into dishes, cool, and grill. The whole piece was firm with a glossy and slightly damp exterior. I loaded it in chunks into a gallon ziplock "pastry" bag. At first the cream was unusable but after 10 minutes, and with the help of heat from my hand I suspect, I was able to get it flowing. Even when piped out, the cream did not look spreadable (like say whipped or sour cream) It was lifeless and "firm" and looked more like a line of gnocci ready to be cut. Like I said, the napoleans tasted great once you got everything in your mouth and chewed it all up to mix up the flavors. The cream however was very thick. What did I do wrong and how do I fix this? Zoom

Hi, My roommate got an ice cream maker for Christmas (actually her bf and I gave it to her) and we are starting to make various treats. I have a large container of molecular gastronomy type of additives and I'd like to use them if they can improve the texture, flavor, or storage of the ice cream. So far the only thing I can find to use is pectin. I have pectin NH. Can anyone tell me the amount (empirically or ratio), to use in ice cream? I want to make mint ice cream tonight using this recipe I found and would love to have it come out smooth, with no crystals. 2 1/2c. heavy cream 1c. milk 1c.fresh mint leaves 1 1/4c. sugar 5 large yolks pinch kosher salt Thanks!

Hi, Thanks for the response. Sorry, I am not a candymaker but what are you scraping? What does this mean? You mean to make it level? What kind of tool do you use? Where does the excess end up?

Hi, I am looking into ordering some metal bars and I wanted to make sure that people are talking about the same thing in this thread. Basically, I want to get four bars to fit together to form a square or rectangle so I can pour either caramel or pate de fruits into. My question is what keeps the solution from leaking out of the corners? Are the cuts (on the metal) so perfectly smooth that they form a seal? Do any of you use corner clamps or something similar? What about leaks on the bottom, between the bars and and the cookie sheet / parchment? Do you weigh the bars down? Lastly, why are rectangular bars better than square? Thanks!

Argh. Looks like I have to make a new batch. Mess-ups are expensive

Hi, The recipe says to "combine the pectin with the sugar" so what I did was pour both into a container and stir. I didn't heat or melt it. Then I heated the water to 40C and dumped the container in. I wasn't stiring rappidly while I did this because I didn't think it'd be an issue. I checked on my creation this morning and it's still liquid, albeit a slow moving thick mass. I assume this is a flop?

Hi, I am making a batch from the El Bulli recipe. The moment I put the pectin/sugar mixture into the water, there were chunks. Does anyone know what causes this (must be the pectin). I hope this dissolves or I'll have to hit it with the immersion blender! Edit: Well it hit 106C and I still had to run it through a strainer. There is probably 1/4 of chunks left. What did I do wrong?