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Heartsurgeon

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Everything posted by Heartsurgeon

  1. JB Prince is where I ordered the clips from. They come in a 2 inch and 4 inch version. I bought both, and found the 2 inch version very limiting for baking purposes. I recommend the 4 inch version.
  2. I got multiple brackets...they actually are quite useful for baking in volume, they let you stack as many trays as your oven/grill will allow. Also, if you need to refridgerate food items on sheet pans, the brackets let you stuff more goodies into the fridge. It's a genius idea (the brackets), in my opinion. The impetus for all this was trying to develop a way to cook bread daily for 20+ people in a remote setting. I didn't want to work out a new way to bake bread on a grill, I wanted to recreate the way i baked bread at home, in the oven. With this setup, you have indirect heat, you have a baking stone, and you have a place to generate steam. I started out with the baking stone directly on the grill surface, and toyed with the idea of using a cast iron griddle off to the side, as a way to generate steam. The stone got much hotter than the ambient temp (due to direct heating), and I also worried about cracking the stone. The griddle off to the side produced plenty of steam when i threw water in it, but the steam was not uniformily distributed (I even bought a grill fan to try and even it out!). In the end, the clips really allowed me to recreate the traditional oven experience.I still worry about cracking the stone, and in this colder weather, i tend to crank the grill up in stages to allow the stone some time to accomodate the heating process. Haven't cracked it yet. The bread comes out great. The real revelation is how much better the pizza comes out. With a hotter enviroment (550-600 degrees usually), the pizza crust gets crispy, the topping get browned, all at once, in 10 minutes or less! Now I know why pizza plces like to use super hot ovens, everything is easier.
  3. "Going to give it a try when the weather is nicer " Why wait! I've baked with the ambient temp in the 30's without problems. It feels pretty fine when the bread comes out and you can bake yourself in the residual heat from the grill. Granted, the grill might not perform great in windy cold conditions where it cannot reach temperature, but that hasn't happened to me yet. Grilled a pizza last nite, the grill hit 550 degrees and the pizza was done in 10 minutes. It was in the 30's.
  4. half sheet pan used. the clips were designed to stack sheet pans, and can be used for many things. it was serendipity that my pizza stone was stackable with these clips, as the pizza stone only matches the sheet pan in one dimension. i use the same setup to cook pizzas on the stone. The level of the pizza stone ends up fairly close to the level of the built in temperature indicator.
  5. I bought a gas grill this year so I could bake bread at Burning Man 2011. It worked so well, I now actually prefer using it over my convection oven (Thermador)! If you have a grill, you need to try this. If you don't have a grill - get one, you'll never regret it. The advantages include quicker pre-heat no clean up higher temperatures (especially when making pizza) no heating up the house I've included some pictures to explain the technique. My bread is a variation of the no-knead formula (see the artisan bread in under 5 minutes thread). Here's my current bread formula: 12 gms yeast 20 gms salt 20 gms malt powder 100 gms whole wheat flour (KA) 900 gms all purpose flour (KA) 800 gms water mix, let rise 2-4 hours, retard in the fridge prior to use. to bake, form mini-boules (about 75 gms each, or 24 per batch) let rise 2 hours slash just prior to baking bake at 450 degrees on a baking stone, with 2 cups of water added to a tray beneath the baking stone 15-30 minutes depending on oven characteristics. I've included a pictorial guide to the grill part of the baking (a pictorial guide to the mini-boules in available in the artisan bread thread mentioned above). I use a four burner gas grill with a tall enclosure. The grill is tall enough i can actually stack multiple baking sheets inside when I'm baking in volume. I bake on a pizza stone, elevated above a aluminum sheet pan. This allows for baking with indirect heat (rather than actually grilling the bread), and generation of steam. The aluminum pan isolates the baking stone from the grill (indirect heat), and adding water to the aluminum pan generates steam during the baking process. A standard aluminum baking sheet is used, along with some aluminum brackets to hold the pizza stone. The aluminum brackets (Sklip Sheet Pan Rack System) are key to this set up. They are relatively cheap, and allow you to stack as many items as you want! Ordered them online from JB Prince. With this system, you can bake bread, exactly the same as you would in a regular oven, with the bread baked on a stone, above a source of steam. Here's how to add water to the tray beneath the pizza stone. I do this at the beginning of the baking process to aid in crust formation. Obviously the bread is already baked in the picture (I forgot to take the picture earlier in the process). Through real-time manipulation of the heating knobs, the grill temperature can be controlled with remarkable precision, albeit manually. I actually verified the built in grill temp probe, with my own temp probes, before I started using it. The results are really quite good, you may encounter some hot spots in the grill, but the grill actually is a convection oven with relatively uniform baking characteristics. Next up, I'll take some pics of baking a pizza in this setup. Pizza is amazing, because you can get the system heated up anywhere from 500-700 degrees, and it's totally different (better) than baking a pizza in a home oven at 450-500 degrees.
  6. Nostrana has turned me on to Arbequina (?spelling) olive oil from the California Olive Ranch. This stuff is amazing if you prefer a super fruity oil that doesn't burn your throat on the finish. Highly recommended.
  7. Had a nice meal there. ate off the happy hour menu (6:00pm?, best call to find out how late it runs). Had a pretty good burger. I'd eat there again. Bistro style dining. good recent reviews.
  8. you might consider adding a small amount of malt to boost the "bread" flavor. see previous posts for the details.
  9. I have wondered about gourmet corn dogs, like a duck sausage blue corn - corn dog...slathered in plum sauce.
  10. perhaps one of these would work? Turkish teapots
  11. no idea about corkage fee, we ordered a wine off the menu and we were happy. post a followup and a review if you end up eating there.
  12. actually, yogurt and peanut butter are fab together. not kidding. i typically eat yogurt plain. as a condiment, set over a strainer in the frdige overnite - looses 30-50% of volume (water/whey). take the remaining solids and add 1-2 cloves of finely minced garlic per cup, and plenty of black pepper, let sit for 2-6 hours at least, and you have a fabulous topping/sauce for lamb or chicken. the "best" yogurt i've found is actually a sheeps milk yogurt from california (bellweather farms?), really tart, adult full flavor that I remember from my childhood, prior to all these faux yogurts with fruit and "additives".
  13. Enjoyed it so much, I went back a second time (and enjoyed it again). Nostrana Salad - ordered it both times wood fire pizza - ordered it both times roasted/smoked chicken - perfectly cooked, but the smoking made the chicken taste like bacon. Absolutely the crazy/best olive oil I have ever tasted for dipping (i kid not). marion berry crisp - excellent located in a strip mall, but don't dispair, very nice vib, great food, great service, great decor, you can dine outside (when it isn't raining). I'll be going back.
  14. stainless steel hemostats are IDEAL for removing fish bones. you can buy them on ebay for $4-$10, they should last forever. be sure to sanitize them prior to any use with food. dunk in bleach overnite, wash throughly. they are the best way I know to pull out salmon bones! you will not be disappointed.
  15. i use the chez panisse recipe as well with fab results. you can increase the lemon juice content quite a bit if you want it more tart, however, the more lemon juice you add, the greater the tendency to form ice crystals as the ice cream ages in the freezer. adding some lemon zest at the end also increases the overall lemony character of the ice cream. love it.
  16. Technivorm. I'll stand by my comments. Now 3 years old, still works great. Replaced the glass pot after i broke it (replacement parts are orderable). I don't really drink coffee that much. The wife can't exist without it. I bought it for her. I have purchased probably a dozen or more coffee makers for her over the years, and this is the first one she hasn't complained about, or wanted to change. Simplicity can be a plus or a minus, no timer, no automatic shutoff, nothing to fail. A year ago we added a Nespresso machine - we like it quite a bit as well.
  17. i'm surprised nobody has mentioned bleach. Works great. Whitest whites...
  18. Goya chickpeas - canned the BEST for making hummus.
  19. I've recently eaten at both Chez Panisse (downstairs) and Gary Danko. Food was good at both, but not memorable. Service ansd decor A+. Chez Panisse was the best smelling restaurant I've ever eaten at (very open kitchen). I guess i wouldn't be willing to spend the money to eat at either one again, although if someone else was picking up the tab, i'd go.
  20. Julia Childs is the culinary equivalent of the "Big Bang" in the US. She was the first to popularize fine dining at home. She was the first to use TV (1963) to actually teach cooking (when Emeril was only 4 years old!) She wrote serious cookbooks that actually contained reproducible recipes. I grew up watching her cooking show, she was captivating, goofy, intelligent, and quirky...
  21. Protein: Sous vide Turducken (turkey, duck, chicken legs/thighs only) The fowl will be cured in salt/thyme/peppercorns/garlic using Keller's recipe Starch: Mushroom risotto (in place of stuffing, made with mushroom stock and whole mushrooms) Rosemary/Garlicy mashed potatoes (substituting rendered duck fat for some of the butter) Sauces: Turkey/duck/chicken stock reduction with cream (gravy substitute) Bread: home made mini-buns haven't decided on the veg/salad choices haven't decided on the dessert yet.
  22. the crust looks superb, how was the crumb? i like it when the bread appears to have "exploded" open at the slashes, in my experience that seems to be associated with a really open crumb.
  23. DO NOT use everclear i made a batch, and essentially ended up with lemon scented cologne/hand sanitzer. no amount of simple syrup or water made it taste good. simply nasty. very harsh, medicinal flavor..kinda like drinking...cologne!
  24. the problem, as you know, is that the flash frozen scallops shed tons of liquid as they cook. You end up with a poached/steam scallop, not a seared scallop. With the diver's scallops, you can get a nice caramelized crust, with a translucent center that melts in your mouth, with a nutty flavor. Unfortunately, i on't believe you can get the same results with frozen product. I started out in Indiana cooking frozen scallops, an never got close to the results i can get here in N. Carolina, with fresh scallops. my favorite scallop recipe is mostly butter (and a small amount of olive oil) in a saute pan, drop the scallops in when the butter starts to brown, let'm sit for 2 minutes, flip'em over, 2 minutes on the other side..done. deglaze the pan with champagne and lemon juice, add a dash of heavy cream......instant pan sauce..plate licking good.
  25. Quasar are you slashing the bread just prior to baking? no mention of this in your post it would help if you listed the exact formula your using, and the brand name/type of flour your using, yeast etc. without the details, we are all just guessing at the answer. it's best to do baking formulas in grams also, do you have a oven thermometer to actual check the temp of your oven? as i've posted before, different flours (all labeled "all purpose") can have astonishingly different optimal hydration ratios.
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