Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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I wasn't trying to discourage you from trying, I was just trying to taste it in my head and was having a hard time with it.
No worries.
I have never had anything 'mojito' except by my own hand and so have no sense of what exactly it should taste like. The information on the subject of the mojito on the web is so varied...wildly...that I decided to go at it more conservatively first. David Lebovitz has a mojito flavored ice. Maybe I'll try that next instead. Thanks. I'll get back to the mojito flavored ganache later.
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Hmmmm....alright. I'll wait until I can buy some white chocolate to do the mojito ganache. And thanks so much for all the good information.
There are other things I can do in the interim...
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That sounds really wonderful, D. I'll have to make that one soon.
By the `way, while you're waiting for your copy to arrive, you can find several DL recipes online...
DH came home and we tried the ice cream together. I think I could have been more heavy handed on the orange zest even and am not sure about using that 3rd TBSP of pepper. The pepper creeps up on you and stays a l-o-n-g time.
I should admit...it could make a big difference...that I used a Philadelphia base for the ice cream instead of the DL custard one. I usually do in my ice creams. We find them rich enough and one of our sons cannot tolerate eggs at all.
All in all, it was incredible and like nothing I have ever tasted before in a cold dessert.
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What about tweaking the Dark and Stormies from Greweling? Replace the dark rum with light, and the ginger with mint (and keep the lime) and you're basically there.
I just realized I am confused a tad by your answer. You say '(and keep the lime)' in the Dark & Stormies. There is no lime in Greweling's recipe. Do mean to add lime while substituting the mint and lighter rum or to leave the lime out?
I don't have any white chocolate. I hardly ever use it at all so I am going to use 54% dark I guess and see what happens.
Please let me know your idea about the lime juice. Thanks.
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I certainly cannot compete with that incredible cake made by dystopiandreamgirl, but I did make traditional Chinese almond cookies, a chocolate layer cake with raspberry jam filling and raspberry-flavored chocolate icing for a friends' barbecue tomorrow and David Lebovitz' Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream.
Tomorrow I am going to make Alton Brown's Moo-less Chocolate pie again, this time with Frangelico, for the year end Pot Luck Lunch of the No Name group (a fiber group of guild refugees which has no name, no executive, no constitution, no fees, no rules, no schedule which to our collective amazement has been running for over 5 years now.)
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I love developing recipes with unusual flavours. Every so often I will do something unique. From a business perspective I make bonbons that will appeal to the masses. If I have a flavour that is an acquired taste it will sit for a long time before it finds a palate to reside in!! I typically make what will sell. I am most thrilled when I can do bizarre flavour combos!
Ah...c'mon...tell us one...
but nothing with bacon in it, please. -
Most of the Australian ginger I have seen has been stem ginger.
I don't know how they get the stems to grow so large, but they apparently have perfected a way of growing it to produce these larger than normal stems.
I experimented with yanking the sprouted ginger out of the soil in a couple of containers and broke off all but one of the stems and new "buds" growing from the rhizome and as the single stem grew, pinched off the top and did get significantly larger stems but the process was labor intensive and didn't yield enough for my use because I do have limited space so I didn't pursue the effort.
Some time ago I was told that a lot of the ginger grown in Australia is grown hydroponically which would make it a lot easier to manipulate the growth of the stems.
Thanks for the information. I just ate one of the Aussie pieces. You are right! It is stem ginger. The biggest pieces are almost 1 1/2" in diameter. That's a BIG ginger stem.
Could there be an eGulleter out there in Australia who might be persuaded to go and look at some growing ginger plants somewhere???
I have yet to plant some ginger in Canada. Now might just be the time to start. I would really like to find a calamansi tree also. However, my thumb is far from green...
If I can learn to candy fruits, I can learn to take care of a few plants properly. -
Someone should tell Andrew Goldsworthy about this incredible cake!!!
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I just got the Perfect Scoop from our local library...have to try books out before I buy them...and it fell open at 'Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream'. Doo doo doo doo....this is a wonderful omen. Tonight I'll make it.
This book is a keeper and a winner and I am going to buy it at once.
WOW!
The joys of living in the middle of nowhere. I have to order the book and it can take weeks.
Finally made the Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream. Wimped out and used only 2 TBSP of crushed Szechwan pepper instead of 3. It is incredible. Delicious. Amazing.
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What about tweaking the Dark and Stormies from Greweling? Replace the dark rum with light, and the ginger with mint (and keep the lime) and you're basically there.
Brilliant! Will do it! Thanks.
ps. It just occurred to me that I could take the flavoring from David Lebovitz' Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream and put that into a ganache. I am just about to perform the last step in making that ice cream and was just wowed! by the flavor.
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It seems that no one has ever posted about making a ganache using a mojito flavoring. And I can find nothing in the major chocolate sources like Greweling, Recchuiti and Shotts. Plus I don't own Wybauw.
I have this current obsession with mojito and wonder if someone does have an idea of how to use it in a ganache.
On the other hand, perhaps there are no mojito ganache recipe for a good reason.
Thanks.
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More ginger questions...
Last night I rinsed both the Australian and the Thai ginger under hot water because they were both so heavily sugared and I want to dip them in chocolate. (I hope I didn't ruin them by doing this.)
I laid them on the shelves of my little dehydrator...thanks Andie...and then it hit me. The Thai ginger was all different shapes and sizes, the way all the ginger I have cut and candied has been.
However, the Australian ginger was all complete and regularly round pieces, like apricot halves would be.
Is Australian ginger so large that this can be done? Or was this ginger so expensive in fact because it was cut from the largest part of the rhizome, with perhaps the irregular pieces going to some other purpose?
Who knew? It's an incredibly fascinating world of food out there!
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If ginger is not cut across the grain, you will have strings that are about the consistency of dental floss.
Sad as it was to throw out my last batch of not-very-good Chinese candied ginger, it was not a total heartbreak. My DH always does the slicing for me and this time he sliced it with the grain on so many of the pieces. He remembered to get them as large as possible...but he forgot to slice them across the grain.
He is such a huge help to me that I could not possibly chastise him. Besides, what good would it do? 
I'll just stand over him the next time. -
How is to be sliced? With or against the fiber? Or on a slant.
I have had much success with the Ginger Lady's (aka Andie) recipe but there is always room for another recipe.
As for my current ginger obsession:
Yesterday I went to our local organic health food store to see their organic Hawaiian ginger. It was as thin as a pencil. Not too useful. No cigar.
However, they did carry bags of candied ginger from Australia ($9.85/lb CDN) and from Thailand $3.90lb CDN) BIG price difference!!! The Australian was a darker color, much tangier, deeper flavor, bigger bite than the Thai. No comparison. (That's not to say that all Australian or Thai ginger tastes like these two.)
My next step is to buy and then candy some Chinese ginger from the local small Asian market where I have been assured by the owner, and a couple of interested customers who were listening to our discussion, that HIS Chinese ginger was excellent.
The earlier Chinese ginger from the supermarket finally hit the trash this morning.
All gingery comment is welcome.
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Today I asked the owner of our local small Asian market (Peterborough) where his ginger came from. He replied 'China' and that I would be unable to buy any other kind of ginger from anywhere else in the area, including Toronto, which has a gigantic Asian population, from anywhere else but China.
Perhaps he is correct; perhaps mistaken.
Is there anyone out there from any part of Ontario who can get ginger from Thailand? Or any other place? The owner said he used to get ginger from Hawaii, but that the Chinese ginger is the best.
...or maybe I should start a separate thread...
Thanks
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I just got the Perfect Scoop from our local library...have to try books out before I buy them...and it fell open at 'Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream'. Doo doo doo doo....this is a wonderful omen. Tonight I'll make it.
This book is a keeper and a winner and I am going to buy it at once.
WOW!
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I prefer ginger from Thailand. I have found it is usually larger and has a "tighter" grain than others I have purchased. I also buy ginger from the Philippines.
As a personal preference, I do not buy products that originate in China.
You have seen the size of some of my ginger slices - I try to pick out the pieces with the largest segments and the fewest "toes" or buds as I think there is a "coarser" grain in the areas where the buds originate.
As I mentioned way back in the beginning, I originally experimented with ginger that was considered unsuitable for candying - at that time people mostly used "young" ginger or "stem" ginger, but when I realized the mature ginger could be steamed to get it to the point of tenderness (which also makes it receptive to the sugar in the syrup) I proceeded with it.
Frankly, I find that stem ginger really doesn't have enough of the "bite" that I like but I know there are a lot of people who prefer it and they are entitled to have what they like.
There is always so much more to learn. You are truly the Ginger Lady.
Now that I have been eating the rhizome ginger for a year, I must prefer it to what is in retrospect very tame stem ginger.
I admit that I had never considered the country of origin of my ginger, but now I will look carefully. Of course, this would make a difference. I wonder how many varieties of ginger there are. I'll look it up.
Ed says for sure the ginger was from China. I shall try to find some from Thailand. I can ask at our local Asian market. This is not a large or cosmopolitan city we live near and so I may have to get my ginger next time I'm in Toronto which has a huge Asian population.
Thanks again, Andie.
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I have occasionally come across some pieces that have an "earthy" flavor that isn't to my liking but it is pretty rare.
It has been quite awhile but as I recall the skin had a much greener look than the usual tan color.
. I usually break off a tiny piece and sniff it to see if it has any of that "earthy" component. If I'm not sure, I will buy a batch and steam just a little, taste it and if it is unsuitable for my purposes, take the rest back to the market, along with a piece of the steamed so the produce manager can taste it. I've never had a problem with them taking it back, although this had only happened twice over a long period of time.
Good stuff, Andie. I never thought of tasting it. And I never thought of steaming just a bit. I did bite into this stuff after steaming to make certain it was ready for the sugar syrup bath, but I did not 'taste' it. I shall do it from now on. I am certain I won't have any trouble taking it back if it comes to that.
I have it drying now on your wonderful grate and just ate another piece. It is still the same. Some underlying flavor that I just don't like...but I don't know how to describe it. Sour? Ate another piece. This one was fine. Perhaps it was just some of the ginger. I think Ed, who bought it, said it came from China. I could check that when I am town next. A mystery.
Thanks. I'll dip it all and just eat it myself over the next months. Or not.
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Is there such a thing as ginger which doesn't really taste all that good?
I have just finished making another batch of candied ginger. The pieces taste fine about 3/4 of the way through the eating, but then there is some not quite right taste about the finishing up of the piece.
Have I done something wrong inadvertently or is there just some ginger which doesn't make the grade. It looked fine, unwrinkled, plump, etc. I was surprised at how inexpensive it was...
Any thoughts, please?
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I'm still trying to get that picture of the chocoalte showpiece on this site! I am hopelessly inept when it comes to anything computer.
Actually Matfer has (or had) such a "rolling pin" Just a series of s/s discs on a rod with handles, thiers sold for something like $300 US in the 2002 catalouge.
Mine is constructed from 6 s/s pizza wheels that I got from the dollar store. I drilled out the rivets that held the discs to the handles. Next I got a length of 3/8" redi-rod from the hardware store. This is just a mild steel rod that is threaded all the way, available at any big box home improvement center or hardware store. The spacing between the wheels is important. The Matfer one includes a zillion plastic washers, for a home made one you can use washers as well or, you can cut 15/16" pieces of 1/2" wood dowel and drill a hole through the center of it. Since the wheels are around 1/16" thick and beveled on both sides, when you use 15/16" spacing, you get 1 inch cuts. Thread the wheels and spacers/washers through the rod. Either cannibilize an old rolling pin or turn your own handles ( I did mine on a wood lathe) and thread this on and secure with nuts, preferably "acorn nuts" or nuts that cover the ends of the threaded rod.
My discs are s/s and the steel redi rod is either covered by wood dowel or handles--it is more or less d/w safe. More importantly, it can withstand some heat-- around 70-80 C and hot steel discs cut through the ganache like butter. It live in my top oven, which I neve turn on but it can get warm in there when my bottom oven runs for a few hours. This is also where I keep my coloured cocoa butters, bulk honey, and various couvetures.
It won't cut through caramel, but I use it to mark the caramel slabs, then cut with a knife. Works a treat on most cookie doughs too--but you have to start in the middle of the sheet and work to either end, if you start at one end, that end will wrap itself around the wheels.
Don't drop it or you'll ding the wheels and ruin the cut. If this ever happens you have to take the whole thing apart, replace or straighten and sharpen the wheel, and re-assemble again.
Hi Edward, Now I will pass your instructions on to my DH, my Edward, and with luck, he can make me one. Thanks so much for going to the trouble.
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I brush mine on with a silicone brush, let it set, and then cut--but I don't use a guitar. I have a "slicing wheel" basically a series of 6 s/s pizza wheels evenly spaced apart on a length of threaded rod.
The wheel gets warmed up in an oven, and if cutting ganache, I can cut the whole thing, if cutting gianduja, I just score the slab and cut with a knife.
Sounds brilliant. I take it that you either made it or had it made. A photo or construction instructions would be nice...
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Made a batch of sour cream two days ago. 1/4 cup of buttermilk to 1 cup of whipping cream.
The result was bland to the point of uselessness. My DH said it tasted a bit soapy.
Added a TBSP or so of lemon juice.
One more day passed. Hooray! Sour cream!
Thanks to all of you for so many ideas on the subject.
Next I will try it with just cream and lemon juice. -
(I did buy the KA hand mixer through Amazon.com while in the States.)
Now we are home and I am using the old hand mixer to make fruit pancakes for breakfast. And I thought I would just write a short note celebrating our old handmixer.
The case is cracked and it has only three speeds and no whisk. Some of the paint is gone and chipped. It is old and ugly. The mixer is SOOOO old that it is a GE, made in Barrie, Ontario, CANADA with all metal gears. The model # is M7A which is, of course, untraceable. I cannot recall how long ago Canada had a manufacturing sector.
And it still runs like a dream after at least 35 or 40 years. And in the meantime I have burnt out at least 3 Black & Deckers in the last two years.
Go figure.
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Pretty much anything with mint, rum, and lime. Is it difficult to imagine?
Nope. I think I got it. Thanks
Flavored Ganaches (Fruit, herb, spice, etc)
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
You're right. I've never tried bacon in chocolate. I might just love it. I had never tried pepper in ice cream either and that was delicious.
Thank you all for so many interesting answers. There stretches out before me a long list of things to try. This has truly been a wonderful year, culinarily speaking.