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Darienne

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Everything posted by Darienne

  1. Thanks. That's a big help. Now think of what you have to look forward to. The marmalade we made was just so good!!! Chocolate fillings. Good. Curd. Mousse. All sound so good.
  2. Thanks for writing. As for the tough rind...I wouldn't say it was exactly tougher, but different. The rind is more like that of the mandarin, but thinner. ...and the more sour flavor...true too. Like biting straight into a lemon. Not to mention that they are incredibly juicy little fellows. Still if it stands still long enough, I will candy it. The candied kumquats from last winter ended up being put in Alton Brown's wonderful Seriously Vanilla Ice Cream and served as dessert at the minor Chinese feast in Moab. I can see these ending up in ice cream too. If they will candy properly. I'll ask the resident candying expert, Andie.
  3. Darienne

    Mousse

    Thank you Tri2Cook. Learn something new every day. Learn, learn, learn... I searched earlier for a thread on a new product which purported to do something for stability, but couldn't find it. I wrote to the manufacturer, who was giving out free samples???, and received neither sample or reply.
  4. Imagine my surprise when I agreed to help a friend harvest her oranges and make marmalade and it turned out to be the fruit of two calamondin (she calls it)/calamansi oranges. We took photos and I'll post one upon receiving them from her. Until two days ago I had never even heard of them. So we followed a recipe for Seville marmalade and made the most wonderful marmalade this morning. When I left, I left with a bag of freshly-picked calamansi and a bag of frozen from last year's crop. Yumm What on earth will I do with the frozen fruit? And can I candy the fresh fruit, like kumquats? All answers gratefully received. (I should add that we live in Ontario, in Zone 3/4 and that these are indoor grown)
  5. Darienne

    Mousse

    A couple of questions please for the newbie folk: from Wiki sources: Syneresis (also spelled 'synæresis' or 'synaeresis'), in chemistry, is the extraction or expulsion of a liquid from a gel, as when lymph drains from a contracting clot of blood. Another example of syneresis is the collection of whey on the surface of yogurt. So this would mean that the liquid part of the mousse drains out and makes things slip? Also why is gelatin not an answer to the problem? It doesn't do the job? It is also subject to syneresis? Thanks.
  6. Wow! I said, imagine being so virtuous as to never use A/C. Then, I had to smile when I read that you live in Halifax. No one in Halifax EVER needs A/C. We shall drop into your non-air conditioned house sometime in the next couple of months when we go to Halifax to see our youngest and his wife. I LOVE Halifax! We do have a few room air conditioners on the farm for the bad days and for visitors, but mostly use the ceiling fans which are amazing in their ability to cool a room. In Moab we used a swamp cooler. Now there is a very green and wonderful solution to heat. I don't know how 'green' this is, but we also have a doggy composter. Not really a cooking concept. Oh, but we do make all our own dogs' food...they eat raw. No waste there...they eat the bones and all. And the veggies are pulped in the Champion.
  7. What is natural compostable charcoal and what do you use it for, please.
  8. Thanks to Chris and the others for all the useful answers. Shotts is not generous with his directions on 'how to'. As for the spatula, I will look for one today. The difficulty may be finding a stainless steel one. That's my only addition to all the advice. If you are using stuff from the hardware/building supply store, make certain that you buy either plastic...which does not stand up to use all that well...or stainless which won't rust.
  9. One small thing which we have done is to use two compost pails. One pail is saved for our neighbors who raise sheep. Sheep will eat almost anything. The second pail is for the few things sheep don't eat: coffee grains and seeds and pits of all kinds.
  10. My invert sugar recipe just calls for sugar, water and citric acid or lemon juice. I've made it and used it with good results. What is the purpose of the baking soda and where does this recipe come from, please? Thanks
  11. Your chocolates may not have been 'perfect', but they still looked pretty darned good to me and I was blown away by your pictorial tutorial. Thanks for all the photos and the step-by-step. I started out making chocolates from Shotts. His was the first chocolate book I purchased and I read the entire book out loud to my DH on a trip home from Moab a couple of years ago.
  12. (While scarcely in the same category as an antique marmalade cutter), Imagine my surprise in trying to find out just what I had bought in a second hand store in Moab to discover that this item was a bona fide Collectible. Almost $20 for a two-stacker...and I have a FOUR-stacker. Tupperware Collectibles on eBay, Divide-a-Rack. I had never seen one before and thought it looked usual for ferrying short stuff, like pies and bonbons, from here to there. I must be in Tupperware Heaven.
  13. Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. Paderno has sales every now and then and with luck a large saute pan will be on sale this year. I'll ask the local rep.
  14. Back to the wok question. OK. Electric is out for Chinese cooking. We are home now and my stove is 2" higher than I would like at least, but cannot be cut down as the last one was. I am not very tall. I cannot handle a wok. It's just too large and unwieldy, besides we have only electric heat normally. Have a burner on the B-B-Q, but this is Canada and we have a lot of winter. I cannot handle a cast iron frying pan. They are too heavy. Well, I CAN do it, but it's not comfortable. I have been making my Chinese dishes using a very old Korean-made, copper bottom sandwich stainless steel frying pan, 10' / 26 cm. DH is pushing me to buy a slightly large fry pan, but I don't know what to go for. The Cuisinart 30 cm pan is half price this weekend at a local hardware store...but is it the best buy? I recall reading somewhere that Cuisinart pans are not all that good. We have a Canadian company, Paderno, made in Prince Edward Island, of all places, which is available locally, but is pretty pricey and I have no criteria on which to go. Thanks for any help.
  15. It's never too late. I don't think we can use anything with chocolate in it at all at the outdoors event, but there are other venues. Our local library is having a book sale at the end of the month and I said I would make something for it. These might be just the thing. The youngsters would love them. I think I'll try them with bittersweet also...might cut down on the sweetness a bit. Thanks for thinking of us.
  16. What about the technique of cooking the eggs in baking soda? It is supposed to work wonders...the same as boiling hazelnuts in baking soda makes the skins just slip off? We feed our two big pups eggs every third breakfast and my DH insists on hardboiling them. And then mutters and curses while peeling the eggs. But he won't even try the baking soda trick. It's a guy thing, I think. No way I'm going to do it. I make them scrambled eggs. BTW, they are supposed to eat them raw but neither of us can stomach it.
  17. Short question of clarification: you mean that the rubbermaid containers are not airtight? Thanks
  18. As far as service is concerned, I have had the best treatment by Chocovision. Although my machine was purchased on Ebay from a dealer...that is not from Chocovision...they honored a warranty that I didn't even know I was entitled to, replacing a defective baffle unit. The little temperature metal piece came loose after just a few usings. I had no idea that it would do so. Then when I purchased a second unit months later, they sent me a baffle with the same unfortunate temperature piece. I phoned in some despair over this problem. Chocovision then told me to keep it, and they sent me yet another unit and with a gift for my trouble... a set of dipping forks, the one that Tomric sells for $35 or something. I was stunned when I unwrapped them. Anyhow, I was truly amazed at the trouble they took on my behalf, especially when I bought the original unit on Ebay for less than half of the regular price.
  19. Hooray for Desiderio! However, I imagine that you acquitted yourself very well also! We just travelled across the continent...well almost ...from Utah to eastern Ontario bringing with us some couverture and bonbons. I put them in a plastic container with a container inside that container filled with ice each day. Not too cold...but not as hot as they would have gotten without the ice. All arrived home fine. (Which is not what happened in January going the other direction when the chocolate was not protected well enough. ) Now tell how you did, Ruth...
  20. I cannot believe it but I have grown accustomed to wearing an apron all the time, often with the bib hanging down. Shades of my dear departed Mother. Do we all turn into our Mothers? One day in Moab, when we had packed almost everything to leave, I was making our last Chinese mini-feast and discovered...no apron! So I fetched my sweater, turned it around and tied it around my waist. I felt much better. I have all sorts of aprons now, mostly from second hand stores. And then I have my special expensive 'Chocolate' apron. And my 'chocolate' t-shirt.
  21. You suggest perhaps going with something like: Great Lakes Confections, but indeed is that the location you would use? Would you use a more specific place name, like somewhere in the Great Lakes, like Bay City or Erie or Niagara Falls. Great Lakes is pretty darned huge for a place name. It might help us to find a second word to go with a chosen first word, if you have one. I can see the problem with a straight marshmallow designation. My confectionery partner and I have called our company...mythical as it is at this point...Cheers & Chocolates although we make much more than chocolates and have the same problem as you do with high humidity and high temperatures, all non-chocolate factors. Good luck to you at any rate.
  22. Thanks. That's a fascinating website.
  23. I found a salamander online...but why would it be called that? It bears no resemblance to a salamander. Curious.
  24. This is the online recipe from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. The meringue is up in spikey bits on top of the pomegranate curd, but I think it would be the same thing. Swiss Meringue Ingredients 6 large egg whites 1 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Directions 1. Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until egg white mixture is hot to touch or a candy thermometer reads 140°F. 2. Pour hot whites into the bowl of a stand mixer or any large bowl if you’re going to mix by hand or use electric beaters. Beat until double in volume and thick and glossy, holding firm peaks that just curl at the tip. Quickly beat in vanilla extract. 3. Spoon evenly or pipe decoratively over tarts. Brown meringue with a kitchen or blow torch or place tarts on a baking sheet in a preheated 375 F oven for about 15 minutes until meringue is browned. Omigod I got the photo up online for you.
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