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trekflyer

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Everything posted by trekflyer

  1. wow... what a waste of cash. A bit of oil added into the water will prevent boil over 100% of the time.
  2. Well, I've never heard this claim about pressure causing glass plates to stick together. From what I understand, it is the forces of adhesion between the water and the glass plates and cohesion between the water molecules that causes this. Generally these strong forces are caused by hydrogen bonds. Since two equally sized plates have a relatively large surface area for the cohesion and adhesion to occur upon, the force holding the two plates together is quite large. If we slide one of the glass plates along the plane between the plates, this will lower the surface area that is in contact between the two plates, it now requires less force to pull the two plates apart. Does this make sense?
  3. Penzey's sells file powder! www.penzeys.com
  4. those marco vids are great..... i also agree that everyone should watch them
  5. First thought is an allergy but could also be a sensitivity to the low level alkaloids present in eggplants. I know it is only one member of the nightshade family but I sometimes get some a little mouth sensation with an astringent seedy eggplant. ← i also get that tingling sensation... i can't stand it. I stopped eating eggplant for a while because of it, though in Israel i have a found what is called a "baladi" eggplant... it's wider and has lots of ripples and creases on it.... tastes better and doesn't have the tingling
  6. i'm sure plenty of you have had this same thing happen.... i'm no chef, but have a bit of restaurant experience and the general passion... my friends know this, my family, i've cooked for many of them and they know my abilities. What do you do when these people take it upon themselves to impress you with their cooking? it happens to me often... you're about to take that first bite and the cook's eyes are locked on to you, waiting to see your reaction... who made ME a food critic?!?! a real food critic isn't worried as much about hurting feelings, but this is family and friends. I'm a poor poor liar, and either way, i don't want to say that something is "great" if i'm not impressed. my general system is to not say anything if the food is fine or bad even... and happily sometimes i'm surprised, and i definitely say that i like it very much.... how do you handle these situations... ?
  7. i really don't think its the first one... i think it's just a very skilled hummus plater.... first he put a big glob in the center and then with a big spoon most likely, or with a ladle, works all the hummus out to the sides.... I'm almost absolutely sure of this since you can see the spot where he lifted the spoon out of the center of the hummus.... on the right side, in the area where the whole chickpeas are... you can see this. Also you can see that under the mint that there is a raised area... that would also be created with the spoon.. it's more of a side effect of using the spoon. --- if they were to use an oiled bowl to make the shape, you would see the sheen of oil on the sides of the hummus... anyone who's up for more speculation opposing mine, bring it on.
  8. how about doing something like this.... with cod instead of brill http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4jKgjszPKI...EE3516&index=13
  9. Although i currently don't have my own technique to add... i have to say that this is a great thread idea and i suggest maybe if people can link the threads that they got the techniques from, that would be very helpful.
  10. Any body try Alton's biscuit recipe? .... I want to i just don't know where one can purchase Shortening in Israel? anyone know?
  11. the best thing i can think of for you... easiest and safest... is flammable jel. I've eaten table top smores at a number of places and this is what they use. Gelled Alcohol (Sterno, Canned Heat, jelled alcohol) - This is either methanol or ethanol trapped in a network of solid calcium acetate forming a gel. This gel is a little safer to use than liquid alcohol since there is less of a spill hazard. Unfortunately, most gelled alcohol stoves have small top openings and often don't get food hot enough to cook or bring water to a boil. Sterno Jelled Alcohol This fuel usually comes in a resealable can and may be the best choice for young and clumsy campers, since kicking it over is less likely to cause a significant fire hazard as would other liquid and gas stoves. Due to costs and limitations, it is not highly recommended for most long distance backpackers. you can take the jel out of the can and put it in the container that you want
  12. Daniel, Lilith sounds like a great idea, i've been curious about it. Just curious, how did you become a food critic/food writer. not that I ever plan on doing that, sounds cool but my writing skills are atrocious Chris, Many people have told me "cook as a hobby".... it's a possibility... it's just that cooking at home is in no way as advanced as a restaurant kitchens.... The raw materials that a restaurant can use are many times not available to the regular consumer... but mostly, what you can learn from a cookbook doesn't even compare to what you can learn by working under a top chef. Instead of working 10 years in something i don't like and the realizing i should have become a chef.... i'd rather get it right the first time... I know none of you can tell me if personally, i will like either one, you don't know me(i obviously don't know myself that well either)... but thanks for the guidance
  13. where i worked, after the hot line, baking...specifically baking was probably the next hardest job.... lugging heavy dough around, 55 pound flour sacks.... a full service of sticking your entire upper body into the narrow 350 celsius stone oven to make focaccia. they generally only had the guys do baking... most of the girls couldn't handle it...
  14. i worked in one of the best restaurants in israel.... a real kitchen... just being around such high quality ingredients all the time made me happy... seeing the days catch delivered... i had to leave because i'm starting school this coming year
  15. I love food, i love cooking.... i dream about it, day dream about it... sometimes i can't even listen to people talking to me because i'm off in foodland.... i want to be a chef.... but, i'm not ready to give every other part of my life up just so i can cook... From my limited experience... chefs are either, divorced, alcoholics, drug addicts, never see their kids....i don't want to be any of those things... I want to be a part of my future kid's lives.... i want to experience the holidays with my own family.... I want to be sane.... So i started giving up on the idea because i don't see any other way to be a RESTAURANT chef without becoming what i don't want to be... Thinking i might be a mechanical engineer.... good money, also a lot of hours but not in the same way as a restaurant... it's interestiing but the passion of course is not there... for some context.... i live in israel... i was thinking i could do the kosher thing...all kosher restaurants are closed on the sabbath and important holidays, leaving me decent family time... still a lot of work hours though... this of course would never work because kosher is sooooo limiting... i'd go nuts from culinary lock-down How can i still be involved in food and maintain a normal life.... i know that no matter what i do, if i want to be succesful it will take a lot of hard work... maybe i'm looking for the easy way... i don't know... just confused any creative ideas are very welcomed Ron
  16. at the restaurant i worked at... most of our sorbets had what was called "icecream stabilizer" what is this mystery powder that we would use.... it made for an amazingly smooth texture.... is it a chemical or is it made out of normal ingredients?
  17. you can also make chestnut gnocchi using flour.... also nice
  18. So i recently began working in a fine kitchen and i have a problem... Ever since i was a kid, when i cook... i wipe my wet hands on myself after washing my hands... either on my pants, my shirt, whatever... Now i have a problem... At work whenever i need to dry or quickly clean my hands while i'm plating during service, it's all goes straight on to my apron... That's not professional... i was told to wipe my hands using paper towels, but i don't want to waste paper every second with a new piece of paper just so i can wipe a little oil off of my hands. So you say, just keep a towel around my apron strap... It's not acceptable to do that, where i work.. I guess the chef doesn't believe in it. I can keep a towel on my work surface, but that just makes the surface cluttered having all these towels thrown about.... This might sound trivial to some people, but i've been yelled at a few times because of this... SOOOO, any tips?
  19. churros are made exactly the same way as this gnocchi just of course instead of boiling water, it's over oil.... A trick thats done at churros places is to tie a tight piece of fishing line or thin string to both of the handles that are positioned at either side of the deep frying pot. With your piping bag you pipe some dough and "cut" it by swiping the tip of the bag over the fishing line... If you do want to cut with a knife... i guess dipping it in cold water every once in a while would help keep from sticking... i just figure that because pate choux doesn't stick to wet surfaces......
  20. I was wondering.... i figure that most chocolate mayonnaise cake recipes that i found ask for store bought mayo.... if homemade mayo is better for eating, does that mean it's better for baking? anyone tried using homemade?
  21. seeing the title of this thread made me sooo happy. I was so excited to enter a write POPEYE'S!!! they're great! Now i live in Israel and whenever i go back to america, within the first few days that i'm there, i visit popeye's.... In Israel they have KFC... I was missing fried chicken and hoped that maybe going to KFC would fill my desire.... I was horribly mistaken... The chicken was horrible, the sides even worse.... the chicken was over cooked, and had been sitting for a while in the warmer... I asked for mashed potatoes as a side, i figured they'd be nice buttery creamy mashed potatoes with a decent brown gravy... NO butter and No gravy.... just dry mush... I was so upset, it honestly ruined the rest of my day, especially because for 2 wings, a breast, bad mashed potatoes, and a small, no refill coke, i paid the equivalent of 12 dollars... writing about it now will probably ruin my day too... and now i leave you with a renewed desire for popeye's.... and more motivation to try to make it myself... i just need to get some crisco or lard...
  22. training chef as in.... this is your first time working as a COOK in a restaurant? how long to stay there? ask your self, is it a quality restaurant? if so, i'm sure there is a ton that you can learn there and it's worth it stay for a while and to try to learn as many of the stations as possible. If it's just a regular restaurant and you want to gain experience, use it as a resume opportunity so that you can later apply to a quality restaurant and really learn from a chef who will teach you the proper way to do things.... In terms of how much training it'll take you before you can be a chef.... it will be many long years.
  23. trekflyer

    Reducing

    maybe this can help.... today my chef walks by a pot of boiling stock being reduced... and screams out "WHO DID THIS, YOU NEVER EVER EVER REDUCE A STOCK AT A BOIL, NEVER EVER!!" and then he continued walking out of the kitchen while at the same time mumbling, "never ever, never ever" it was funny.. does that help...
  24. i live and work in a foreign country and am still learning the language. my chef had made some special dessert and left it in three sauce pans on the counter. The sous chef later came in a hurry and told me to "empty" the sauce pans. So! i just obviously thought to "empty" everything into the trash.... then of course, the chef came later looking for his precious dessert... turns out that he meant for me to "empty" it into a different container, not into the trash.... it's ok, it wasn't that good anyway.
  25. thanks a lot for the recommendations... i'll try to remember to write down the recipe and post it
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