hansjoakim

Happy new year everyone! I'd like to prepare a risotto with duck breast as a special treat this weekend, and I'm curious about how to best cook the duck breasts. I have two duck breasts weighing approx. 300 grams each. I've googled a bit, and there seems to be (at least) two schools on how to best cook duck breasts. The first, which I've used previously with great success, is as follows: Make incisions in skin, season with salt and pepper and place, skin side down, in a cold pan. Turn the heat to high under the pan, and cook for approx. 6 mins. Flip over and cook another minute. Place the breasts on a preheated baking tray and bake in a 200 dC oven 7 - 8 mins. Cool 10 mins before slicing. The other method, which I'm curious about, follows the same initial procedure, but says that the breasts should be baked in an 80 dC oven for roughly 20 mins. In both cases, the core temperature of the breasts should be between 58 and 62 dC. What are the differences between a quick (high oven) cooking method and a slower (low oven) one? As I'm planning on serving the breasts with a risotto, placing the partly cooked breasts in a low oven for 20 mins frees up a sufficient time slot so that I can concentrate fully on making the risotto while the breasts finish in the oven. Any thoughts, experiences and ideas are most welcome!

Thanks, everyone, for your replies! I'll see what I can find - I might just end up using spring onions if that's the closest thing I'll find.

Hi all, I'm looking at Robuchon's recipe for salmon au champagne (from the Complete Robuchon), and the ingredient list calls for "new onions". What exactly is a "new onion"? I'm not very well versed in the English culinary vocabulary, so I wanted to run this by you before doing something awfully stupid in the kitchen... Could it be another name for green onions? Thanks in advance!

Those look splendid! I also prefer to grind my own (blanched) almonds. Over the weekend I ended up with quite a bit almond meal left over. How long will the meal keep before going rancid?

If it's not a basque cake, I'd think that an ordinary frangipane tart, with cherries between a sweet tart crust and the frangipane filling, would be a good contender.

Hmm... this reminds me of the gâteau basque. The gâteau is made with a dough that often has some almond flour and lemon/orange zest in it. On top of the dough, it's common to have either pastry cream (which could give you some hints of vanilla) or a combination of pastry cream and cherries. The filling in your photo looks more like frangipane, however, as Beebs pointed out. There are many recipes for gâteau basque on the net; here's one from zencancook.com (which doesn't have cherries in it) and here's one from Cannelle et Vanille (with black cherry preserves). I once tried the recipe in Bo Friberg's "Professional Pastry Chef", and was delighted with the result.

Hi HQ and Lisa, Thank you ever so much! I think I'll try both methods and see how the design turns out.

Hi, I've been asked to make a cake for a friend of mine. I'd like to make something special, and want to use a decorated sponge sheet to get that eye-catching look. The recipes I've seen for decorated sponge sheets all say that the paste should be frozen (to make it firm enough) before cake batter is poured over the sheet. Now, I only have a tiny freezer in which a half-sized sheet pan (30cm x 40cm) doesn't fit... Is it possible to make these decorated sheets without using a freezer to firm the paste? Is it sufficient to place the sheet in the refrigerator instead, or would the paste most likely be too runny to yield nice, even ribbon patterns in the final sheet? Thanks for any suggestions and tips

I'd like to suggest "The Complete Robuchon" - a terrific book filled with basic, French home cooking recipes.

This is a very interesting question, and one that I have wondered many times myself, namely how the characteristics of a sourdough culture change over time. There is an excellent, albeit slightly longwinded, thread about sourdough baking here at eGullet (click here for that). Then there's also the informative sourdough FAQ (click here for that). I'm not sure if there is a definitive answer to the question, but I have read about a specific German rye sourdough in which the microflora has been stable for several decades. As any living organism, the culture will adapt to its environment (i.e. your feeding schedule and the pH level in the culture, temperature, flour etc.). If you e.g. increase your level of inoculation, or let more time pass between successive feedings, you're likely to lower the pH level of the culture, and that will favour strains of lactobacilli that better handle acidic conditions. So if you change the environment of the culture (by feeding or ambient temperature for instance) I would say you're likely to shift or alter the microflora of the sourdough. Based on the observation that the specific German rye sourdough has been stable for so long, I would infer that as long as the culture is healthy and fed according to a strict schedule, changes in flour, water, air etc. is less likely to affect the makeup of your particular culture. The established culture will always have the upper hand during feedings, since it is present in much higher densities than any foreign strains and microorganisms that you introduce whenever you feed your culture. At least that's my reasoning. Actually, I think there is something to the claim that commercially available starters can keep their characteristics for a long time. As long as you stick to the feeding schedule that come with the starter, I don't see why the dominating microflora should change over time. Survival of the fittest, right? I keep a firm white starter, but I've also experimented with various homemade rye starters to see if there's any significant "tang" or difference in regards to flavour. To be honest, I can't tell any difference. I've never experimented with a semolina starter (I'm not very fond of durum wheat in the first place).

Alright, thanks so much for that, Darienne! The "...at Home" part of the title got me wondering...

I think I would be very interested in this title also. As I'm Euro-based, it's pretty essential for me that cookbooks contain metric weight measurements. Does this title provide this? What about Greweling's other, more comprehensive chocolate book; are there metric weights in that? Thanks

I just noticed that the book "The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts" is up for pre-order on Amazon.com. The publishing date is Nov. 1st 2009, but it's apparently not out just yet. It looks tempting, but I was wondering if any you have looked into the book already? According to the description, the book is based on Jacques Torres' curriculum, taught at the FCI. I'm curious whether this is another book in same style as Gisslen, Friberg and Suas, or whether it brings something new to the table? Cheers!

hi all, you're right, slkinsey, i think several saltless tuscan breads use part scalded flour. the hot water is probably increasing enzyme activity in the flour, so that more less-complex sugars are freed up. that's probably adding a nice flavour profile to otherwise rather uninteresting breads (well, in my opinion at least). some of the photos are sadly gone now, but this thread @ dan lepard's forum is interesting reading regarding scalding part of the flour in a recipe.

hi sheetz, yes, i've tried this a couple of times, both in rolls and in breads. i think the hot water - flour mix was referred to as a "mash" or just "scalded flour", but the idea was to pre-gelatinize part of of the flour. i made some delicious whole-wheat and oatmeal rolls with this technique, and the mash definitely adds a soft, moist texture to breads and rolls. i've read it was pretty common in european (esp. northern european) baking as well.

love the strawberries!! today, i tried the raspberry cake from friberg's second book. i scaled down the recipe to make one 15 cm cake, so there was no room left on top for raspberry decorations... still tasted good though!

dystopiandreamgirl: i'm rubbing my eyes in amazement anytime a photo of one of your creations pop up on my screen... it's hard to believe that those things are real... breathtaking! you're amazing. kim: your cake looks delicious! seeing those perfect strawberries on kim's cake inspired me to try a fraisier:

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to macs, but I had a pretty successful first attempt at making them earlier today: As pointed out above, I've read that many think an Italian meringue is best to get the most predictable results. However, I had just read Helen's article about macarons in Desserts Magazine, where the French method is described, so I opted for that for my first iteration. Also, I don't find almond flour in stores around here, so I ground blanched almonds with powdered sugar as finely as my food processor will let me. I believe for that reason the shells are a bit uneven. I used a recipe for completely plain macs, and let them dry out for 30 mins., before baking them in a convection oven @ 155 degrees Celsius with the door slightly ajar the entire time, for roughly 9 minutes. They were baked on a perforated sheet pan (no double/triple panning). I was very careful with not overmixing the batter, but I think I could've given it a few more folds. But, from what I've read, rather undermix than overmix... Although they clicked for me this time, I'm partly ascribing that to beginner's luck There are so many variables floating around here, that I'm guessing they'll crack on me next time...

That looks brilliant! I love such fruit cakes. It looks incredibly moist and delicious - with a healthy "snow" topping. Way to go!

Yes, I'd also like to recommend Lebovitz' recent Paris book. It's a brief, entertaining read with every chapter ending with a recipe or two. I haven't baked anything from it yet, but there are definitely a couple of recipes I've bookmarked. If you enjoy his posts on davidlebovitz.com, you'll enjoy the book too! I recently picked up a batch of flavourful Royal Gala apples at the store, and decided to use the remaining bits of puff pastry that I had in my fridge. Earlier this week, I made the rough puff pastry from Michel Roux' "Pastry", and there were still some chunks left over. I made the Calvados chunky apple filling from Friberg's book: And made some apple turnovers: and the puff pastry apple points, also from Friberg's book: Here's how the points are supposed to turn out: chefbo. This was my first attempt at the apple points, and I was quite pleased with the outcome! There's a delicious Calvados cream around the interior puff pastry strips and apple filling, and the whole thing is iced with whipped cream and sprinkled with puff pastry crumbs. Will make it again.

that's right! it's written skål. however, i would guess that the danish way of pronouncing "skål" is quite similar to the way english speakers pronounce "skoal". some people like their aquavits slightly chilled, but, as mentioned above, this takes away a lot of the rich taste from herbs. the spirit is particularly popular during christmas, and it's usually served at room temperature in small shot glasses. delicious accompaniment to typical scandinavian christmas fare

I've started to experiment a bit with buckwheat flour, and had a go at a sourdough multigrain today: There's 20% buckwheat and 10% whole rye in this loaf, and the soaker is a combination of flax, sunflower, quinoa and pumpkin seeds. Mighty tasty, and I think the subtle flavour of buckwheat adds quite a lot to this loaf. Here's the crumb:

I just noticed that Éric Kayser has a new book out: New French Recipes. It's been around for a couple of months, but I haven't heard anything about it yet... Has anyone looked at it?

impressive output, dan!! do you manage to work your way through it all? i've wanted to make the choux strips from friberg's book ever since i first saw them. i'm planning a puff rolling session sometime next week, so i'll hopefully have a go soon. do you like the recipe, dan?

bague25, absolutely brilliant! thanks so much what a brilliant blog it is too... i'm drooling here.