nickrey

If the base is cooked and the egg is on top, why not use the griller (broiler) rather than the oven, similar to making open faced toasted sandwiches with already cooked toast? If the cheese and base still cook too quickly, put them in the freezer overnight already made up. That way the only thing at room temperature is the egg, which you will add in the morning. The egg will cook, the cheese will defrost and then melt and cook, and the base will defrost and then crisp. Problem solved.

The flavour in a white base pizza comes from the mix of cheeses. If it doesn't freak you out too much, how about considering using some gorgonzola piccante along with the mozzarella, ricotta and parmesan? It doesn't need to dominate, use just enough give the flavour profile an edge.

I'm with Rotuts on this, a Rose would be perfect with the dish you describe, particularly if the wine has a bit of residual sweetness to cope with any heat in the salsa.

Flour hydration is variable. Egg size is variable. Humidity and other climatic variables all affect how baking turns out. Cup measurements are next to useless as a way of standardisation. Measurement by weighing provides a much better estimation but, once again, the factors above are modifying variables that can sabotage what you are trying to achieve. Measurement can only take you so far. Over time one develops expertise in coping with variances caused by the things I've hurriedly noted above as well as many others. The way the dough looks and feels is a better measure of how it will work than anything else. To the outsider this seems instinctive because it appears to be automatic and natural. On the other part of the question, with enough experience and some natural ability I've found that you can read a recipe and, in essence, taste it in your mind. This allows you to substitute or add ingredients that will improve the product. Taste is one thing but you also need to know what impact the substitute will have on the cooking process. For example, adding liquid acid rather than a dry form to bicarbonate of soda or another rising agent will cause the rising to happen in the bowl rather than in the oven: cookie textured cake anyone? To some extent, watching others do things (e.g. a parent or grandparent) can shorten the journey to gaining experience because you internalise lessons that you then don't need to acquire by trial and error yourself. However, it can also lead to dysfunctional dogmatism. I remember reading of a granddaughter who cut a portion off the end of each roast before cooking because this is how she was told to do it. Turns out that this came from her grandmother via her mother. She finally worked out that the grandmother had a cooking pan that would not hold the length of the meat...

I do a lot of preparation work at home for cooking for fifty people plus. In a very small kitchen. Without cleaning up as I go, this could not happen.

May be a good ingredient to add to bean or Jerusalem artichoke dishes.

Thanks for the figures. They will be very useful for calculating yields in catering.

Just a tip on searing. I've taken to using a carbon steel wok on top of my highest gas heat. The very thin steel conducts the heat better than any fry pan I've used and gives a great sear. I simply lightly coat the meat in a high-temperature smoking oil such as grape seed and put it in the pre-heated wok until the desired sear is achieved.

I was in a chef's commercial kitchen recently and was heating a pre-prepared dish. I said to the chef that it may be good to put a cartouche on top. Used to folding baking paper up then cutting it in a circle to fit the pot, I was somewhat taken aback when he grabbed a square of baking paper and pushed it down into the pot to form a perfect seal. When I mentioned about a hole in the middle, he grabbed a knife and cut a rather rough hole in the middle. It was a perfect cartouche in a busy kitchen but not something you see in the cooking shows. Do any chefs have similar shortcuts to share with us idealists?

I use a microwave. I add sufficient rice for around three to four people, rinse the starch out of it until the water is mostly clear. Then add water so that it comes up to the first knuckle of my index finger above the rice. Twelve minutes on high, eight minutes resting with the lid on. Perfect rice every time.

Dried mushroom powder is a thing I use with sauces when I want to give them a umami hit. Like fairy dust for chefs.

Any chef who is being honest will tell you that service, environment, and food all count towards the success of a restaurant. Even if you had the best food in the world, poor service would result in patrons being most unlikely to return. The whole package is what is important.

I ate there a few years ago now. Probably the best dining experience I've ever had. I'm sure individual preferences have a part to play but equally I've had meals at three Michelin star restaurants that have been simply too try hard to be credible. EMP was not like that. There will always be diners who want to eat there to say they've eaten there to give themselves kudos. Equally, there will be people who will eat there and criticise it -- because they can and it makes them feel powerful to do so. Congratulations to EMP. Unfortunately, it makes you a big target for all and sundry to be less than impressed with.

Tempura batter. Four parts flour, one part potato starch. Add equal parts cold vodka and cold sparkling mineral water plus one egg to give a thin batter. Mix gently, leave lumps of flour. Dip dish in and fry. I'd deep fry rather than shallow fry.

A sauce is a flavour modifier. If the original dish is strong, a well-balanced but subtle sauce is going to be swamped. The sauce will need to either fill a hole in the main dish or add something entirely new. The sauce as stated in the recipe seems incredibly bland. Try simmering the cream with some bacon prior to bagging and then putting it through a sieve to collect only the cream for use in the bag. The bacon will give strength to the dish. Season it by all means, but also think outside the "throw lots of salt in it" camp. I like the Asian mantra of sweet - sour - salty - hot. If you think of this, what is missing from your sauce? Have you tried adding some form of acid to the sauce before serving? This adds high notes; although reading the recipe it would probably also need some low notes: how about prunes or dates? Look at successful pork dishes and what gives them their flavour and see how you can incorporate the profiles into your dishes.

80C is likely high enough enough to nullify the sulphur compounds. It's the lower temperature cooks where the problem lies.

The sulphur compounds in the garlic are the likely cause of this. They are reduced or, more typically, deactivated through cooking, which is not achieved at the low temperatures used for sous vide cooking. A blanch may work but I'd probably be flash frying it instead before adding it to the bag. Have you tried using black garlic? Look forward to hearing the results of your experiments.

Quinoa? Chia? Not likely. Both have Aztec origins. Probably like the "Aussie" bites.

Never seen them before in my life. As they come from Costco, I'd suggest that they are as Australian as Outback Steakhouses which, according to their history,was an Australian-inspired steakhouse restaurant first set up in that well-known Australian city: Tampa, Florida.

Seems like it's extracted using acid link here. "Dextrin is a hydrolyzed starch made from various starches such as potato, corn, tapioca, rice, arrowroot or wheat. Wheat starch is a byproduct from extracting gluten from wheat. The wheat starch is sprayed with acid while being agitated and then suspended in water by the acids or enzymes. After maturing, the wheat starch is dried in a roaster where it is continually heated and stirred. The converted dextrin is then taken from the roaster and cooled. It is humidified before packing to keep the dextrin from getting lumpy or foaming. Heating times and acids vary depending upon the manufacturer and the final product usage." Definitely not gluten free, it appears.

I agree with Martin, the taste is neutral.

Use Trisol. The recommended usage is 30% Trisol to 70% flour.

Using sous vide dash and assuming that the meat is 3cm thick, the surface reaches a salmonella log reduction of 6.5 at the 2:33:50. All pathogens are reduced at the core after 3:33:32 (i.e. this is when it is pasteurised). That said, I wouldn't go above 55mm (2.16 inches) thick as the core will not reach pasteurisation in under 6 hours. The extra cooking time is to tenderise the flank.

As I remember it, the original intention of the course was a way of allowing non-science students at Harvard to get their mandatory science subject in a fun way. Naturally there will have to be science content, and not at a basic level.

In a lot of BBQ, the rub is a flavouring component and the sauce is a finishing component. Think dry marinade. The rub typically doesn't burn in a conventional BBQ because of the humidity in the cooking environment. If you wanted to get a similar effect to BBQ, I'd put on the rub and let the flavours penetrate into the meat overnight, then wash it off and dry the meat before vacuum sealing and cooking it sous vide. Then dry and sear on high heat (deep frying gives excellent results) and then apply a sauce.