judec

Yup. Baker's %, metric, lbs-oz, volume.

They did kind of take past performance into account. The chefs with the most wins got to pick their proteins and sous chefs first. Of course if Stephanie choked as well, then.....

All he contributed was "I want more." Go get a burrito as big as your head or something.

I literally received this book in the mail yesterday. Any specific questions about it? Randomly flipping through the pages, it seems like a steal at the price I paid for it.

Soba tends to be heavy and retains a lot of water. This isn't easy to stir fry -- I've tried a number of times. I would use lots more oil, heated on high just until it starts to smoke.

I'm so glad she decided to stay here. I'll be looking forward to it.

Glad I'm not alone. I can understand the appeal but the first word that comes to mind after a bite is "refrigerator." My sentiments exactly.

Sounds like lambics. They're left to ferment in open air and gets sourness from lactic acid bacteria. It might be the same class of yeasts that gives sourdough its tang.

You can also use whole rye / wheat flour to get a culture started. There's a lot of wild yeasts on whole grains.

Had no time to get banana leaves and anatto so no cochinita this weekend. Ended up making puerco en naranja using pork shoulder. It was braised in garlic, mex oregano, and whole oranges. Not exactly tacos but oh well... I'll be using Diana Kennedy's Pibil recipe from her "Essentials" book with a dutch oven. No backyard hole digging for me. Saw Bayless pibil episode on PBS and his pickled onion recipe uses lime juice doesn't it? Kennedy's calls for vinegar and a bunch of herbs/spices. I wonder which one's more "authentic," whatever that means these days.

How about just squeezing the rind over the juice so only the oils get in your drink? It's done for some cocktails and makes all the difference.

I also find even the topmost layer of orange rinds bitter. It's just how it is and should be used sparingly. In cooking, heating the zest seems to mellow out the bitterness, but in your orange juice where it's raw a tiny pinch should be enough.

The hydration of your dough is 87.5%... That's really slack so your shaping options are really limited. I would stretch the dough out on a heavily floured counter and use a bench scraper or blunt edge to cut off rectangular pieces. Cut carefully so that you're pinching to seal the edges instead of making a clean cut.

By the way you described it, the first thing that came to mind is a roasting pan. What do you plan to use it for?

I had exactly the same experience with a tub I bought yesterday. It was watery, chunky and almost unpalatable. I used to be able to hold the tub upside down Dairy Queen style and it would stay in place. This tub would've dripped out into a gloopy mess. It seems like they didn't strain it enough. I make my yogurt at home and use Fage as a starter. The 2 gallon batch I made came out fine so at the very least it still has live cultures. At least they didn't screw that up.

There are a few ways to tenderize the dough. You can take a portion of the water and replace it with milk or add more oil. If we were talking about 2-3 loaves, then I'd be quick to suggest specific measurements and tweaks. Would you be able to take the baker's percentages to scale down the recipe and make smaller test batches?

Does anyone here bake regularly from Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart? I've been getting excellent results from using his "epoxy" method of constructing the final dough. In a nutshell, The final dough is made from half starter and half soaker prepared at least a day before baking. The starter and soaker are then cut up and combined on baking day (this is where the "epoxy" analogy comes from). I think the best advantage of this technique is that the final dough can do a quicker final rise compared to more traditional methods. It's possible to have freshly baked bread by dinnertime even on a busy weeknight. Most of the flavor development comes from the large amount of starter and soaker, so the final dough can get mixed with fairly large amounts of additional instant yeast and rise quickly on baking day.

Letting it proof for a bit longer might help. How long is the final proof for your boule? The weight for a cup of flour in this book is about 4.9 ounces.

In Yin Fei Lo's The Chinese Kitchen, there is a recipe for Soybeans Anhui Style. It's basically pureed soybeans and is the only recipe in the entire book originating from Anhui. It's hardly a reason to consider it representative of an entire region but Anhui recipes bit hard to come by.

I'm planning to make a batch of Cochinita Pibil and the requisite pickled red onions over the weekend. I'll post pictures and hope it turns out good...

I really like Eileen Yin Fei Lo's The Chinese Kitchen as far as authenticity is concerned. There are several recipes from lesser known regions of China. It even has a chapter on the authentic equivalents of americanized chinese dishes such as egg drop soup, general tso's, chop suey, etc.

Have you tried the stretch and fold method? Since I don't own a KA, I always use this technique with great results on wet doughs. It's pretty much impossible to overmix when doing this. There's more info here: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/stretchandfold.html

The bottom of my oven. There's enough cornmeal and burnt flour in it to fill a sandbox.

Hey guys. First post. I have been consistently getting good results from Peter Reinhart's BBA french bread recipe. Half of the final dough is prefermented the previous day. I've been using 100% King Arthur Bread Flour as opposed to using %50 AP/%50 Bread Flour in the original recipe. I documented the whole process from beginning to end here (with notes and pictures): Peter Reinhart's French Bread Scoring the proofed baguettes took a LOT of practice.