isomer

Personally, I love brown rice. I cook it using the pasta method (ie in an abundance of salted water), which pretty much guarantees good results. If have access to cook's illustrated, their recipe for Brown Rice with Parmesan, Lemon, and Herbs is absolutely fantastic.

Bananas. For 80-100 calories, I've never found anything as filling as a banana. Not even close. I eat one a day without fail. Larabars are good too, and I also snack on cut up carrots, cauliflower etc...

That's really neat, Tri2Cook. The only drawback I've found with the procedure is the yield -- I typically get 60% - 70% by weight. I know that the solids account for a percentage of that, but it seems that there is a lot of product loss going on, even at a conservative 0.05% w/w gelatin ratio. Do you find that? Have you ever weighed your start and end product? Same thing? Also, when you're doing protein consommes this way, do you account for the gelatin already in the product? I have stayed away from syneresis for this because I keep thinking I will get a yield of like 30-40%. (sorry if this is hugely off-topic)

I do each part of the operation before moving to the next: I portion the food, separating each portion with sheets of parchment. Then I make one-ended bags, then i fill them all, then I seal them all. The only trick I have is to roll down the tops of the bags before filling them - this keeps the food from touching the area that's going to be sealed. Makes the operation pretty painless.

I've used it a few times, and like it quite a bit. I filtered some tomato juice for a clear bloody mary. I'm curious, what do you use it for? -anthony

eGullet Roasted Cauliflower! Try it if you haven't. All of the eGCI courses are fantastic. Especially the stocks, sauces, and plating courses. Most recently, Chad Ward convinced me to get a cow sword (gyuto), and forever changed the way I sharpen my knives (I bought an Apex pro sharpening system). You guys totally rock! -anthony

Check out May's Garden Restaurant on Somerset. My friend, who is originally from Fujian province tells me the food is very much like home. He also likes Lichee View restaurant on Merivale road. You might also look on chowhounds or ottawafoodies for other ideas.

I've got a beechwood knee grider, and I love it. Been using it for years to make french press coffee. You grind quite coarse for the press, so it goes quickly . I suppose that the burrs could eventually wear out, but I'm guessing you'd be pretty safe with an old one. They're built like tanks.

Park City is a bit of a foodie mecca, believe it or not. Here are my favourites from the many, many good restaurants there: Blind Dog Grill has fantastic food. Both the sushi and cooked items are excellent. Really worth a trip. Bangkok Thai on Main st has a mindblowing wine list and fantastic food. The fish curry was especially good. If you're going to be skiing, the slopeside restaurant at Deer Valley is not to be missed. Best ski hill food I've ever come across. Both the salads and the desserts are legendary. Hope this helps, -anthony (edited to name the Thai place)

Seconded (or thirded) for More than Gourmet. I've used the glace de viande and the glace do poulet, and both are really quite good.

It's not totally clear - it's more like the colour of pale apple juice. I'm pretty sure, though, that if you start with tomato water it will come out totally clear.

This weekend my kitchen project was a gelatin clarification....with photos! My ultimate intention is to make a clear bloody mary mix at the end of the summer with the tomato juice from all the fresh tomatoes I'm going to roast and freeze. In the meantime, I tried it with canned tomato juice. The first thing I did was pour the juice through a fine-mesh strainer to remove as much pulp as I could: The resulting juice tastes basically the same, but with less mouth feel than the original canned juice. After that I strained again through a coffee filter: Remember to wet the paper filters with water before pouring in the juice. This expands the fibers in the filter to the correct size (see? two years in an organic chem lab did pay off!) I was pretty surprised at how much pulp was left after the initial straining. As you can see, it's quite a lot: There's very little taste difference between the filtered juice and the initial strained juice, but it does have noticeably less mouthfeel. The next step is to weigh out 0.5% gelatin w/w. To make things simple, I weighed out 500g of juice, which is half a litre, and 500g x 0.5% = 2.5g of gelatin powder: I warmed about half a cup of the liquid, and mixed in the gelatin powder. After it was incorporated, I stirred the half cup into the remaining juice. From there, it went into the freezer overnight. The next morning, I took the frozen block and set it over a cheesecloth lined strainer in the fridge: It took about 2 days for all the liquid to melt out, and leave just a pile of sludge. I kept pouring off the liquid every 12 hours so that I would know when it was done. Here is the sludge at the end: And here, in the two small jars on the right, is the clarified juice: I've put it next to the juice that's been through the coffee filter so you can see the difference in colour. Those little mason jars are 250ml each, and you can see I got about 340ml of product, which is a yield of 340ml / 500ml = 68%. Amazingly, the clear juice tastes virtually identical to the filtered juice! In a blind test, I don't know that I could tell the difference, except for the slight grittiness of the filtered juice compared to the clarified one. The bloody mary came out really well, too!

Hi Chad, First, thanks for the great book! I've learned a great deal from it. To start with, I went and bought a ceramic "steel", which does indeed do a far nicer job than the smooth(ish) steel I was using before. I notice that the ceramic is picking up some dark streaks from the knives, which I assume are tiny metal deposits. Does this eventually load the ceramic? If so, how - and how often - do you clean it? Thanks so much, -Anthony (er... isomer)

Woah. That looks totally awesome!

Better late than never, I suppose. After a bit of net searching, I found Quillaja, manufactured by Garuda International. Quoting from their site:

Sure thing. I've uploaded it as I usually make it to the receipe gullet here. Enjoy!

Cucumber-Coconut Gazpacho with Basil Puree Serves 4. Adapted from Simple to Spectacular by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman. This is one of my favourite, and most used cook books. Highly recommended. Soup 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped 2 T extra-virgin olive oil 1 pound cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped 1-1/4 c chicken stock 1 c canned, unsweetened coconut milk 1/2 c mint leaves hot sauce, to taste 1 tsp lime juice or more, to taste 1 T nam pla or to taste Basil or Cilantro Puree 1/2 c basil or cilantro leaves, washed and dried extra-virgin olive oil 1. Sweat the onions and garlic in a pan with the olive oil until softened. 2. Add the cucumber, and cook until firm-tender. 3. Add the chicken stock, and cook 5 minutes, then add the coconut milk, and cook another 2-3 minutes. 4. Add the mint, nam pla, hot sauce, lime juice, and season to taste with salt and pepper. 5. Remove from heat. 6. When the soup has cooled somewhat, blend in batches in a blender until smooth. Taste again, once cooled, and adjust seasonings as needed. 7. Refrigerate soup. 8. Make the puree by washing and drying about 1/2 cup basil or cilantro leaves, and putting them in the blender. Then, with the blender running, drizzle in just enough EVO to make a smooth paste. I like the texture to be a bit thicker than the soup. Notes 1. To make this lower in fat, I've successfully substituted half of the coconut milk with light coconut milk. The texture is not markedly different. 2. I like to serve the soup with a drizzle of puree, and to make it into a light main course, with one or two grilled shrimp. Keywords: Soup, Easy, Blender ( RG2130 )

Wow - that looks fantastic!

I find that even if I blanch the onions first, they still take a long time to peel. Next time I need them, I'm going to try the frozen ones.

In honour of the first obscenely hot and humid weekend this summer, I've made the delicious Cucumber-Coconut Gazpacho from Jean-George's book Simple to Spectacular. This is a wonderful soup made with coconut milk and cucumbers, flavoured with mint, nam pla and lime juice. It's cool, refreshing and delicious! Here's the mis-en-place: And here is the finished soup. Highly recommended.

Hi Chris, I made a steak with caramel sauce and nam pla the other week. It's a recipe from Jean-Georges's book "Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef", and it came out quite well. Here's a photo from the Dinner thread. I had exactly the same reservations as you did about the fish sauce as the smell came bubbling up, but in the end it was very nice. I had a clever though in advance (for a change) and covered the caramel with a spatter screen and poured the fish sauce through it. Saved a whole lot of cleanup.

OMG that looks amazing! nakji: I'm in Ottawa. Hmm... maybe you're right, and I just haven't looked hard enough. There are wonderful Asian markets here. Happily, I seem to be on a roll remembering to snap a quick dinner photo before I dig in. Here's tonight's dinner: Rack of lamb with a crust of black trumpet mushrooms, grilled vegetables and a cucumber salad:

Thanks nakji. I've never tried myoga. In fact, I've never seen it in Canada. Tonight I grilled spice-rubbed chicken, green onions (they had to get used...don't ask) and my all time favourite...parsnips! (the green onions were quite delicious)

Tonight's dinner was oyakodon, a Japanese rice bowl with chicken and egg. In fact, oyakodon means "parent and child rice bowl". It's a pretty easy and delicious weeknight dinner. First, set some Japanese sticky rice cooking. While that is going, cube some chicken thigh or breast meat (not shown), prep the veggies and crack an egg into a bowl. Make a half cup or so of dashi broth with some mirin and sugar (alas, also not shown). I give the chicken a quick saute, then add the veggies. Pour in the broth. Once it starts to simmer, gently pour the egg over top of the chicken and veggies. When the egg is soft-set, and the chicken is cooked through, you're done. Tip the whole thing over a bowl of rice, and garnish with sliced green onion.

I love grilled vegetables. I slice sweet potatoe, turnips, zucchini, eggplant and (my absoluite favourite) parsnips into 1/4 inch slices. Toss the veggies and (another favourite) oyster mushrooms with some olive oil, salt and pepper, then grill until lightly charred on the edges and soft in the middle. You can reseason and drizzle with a little bit of white wine vinegar or lemon juice right before serving. Parsnips have a woody core, so I cut planks out of the thicker bottom part around the core. You can eat the core of the thinner part. -isomer