curls

When I stripe a mould, I use colored white chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate and put the chocolate in a parchment coronet or a disposable pastry bag. Have not tried used pure colored cocoa butter to make my stripes. No idea when straight colored cocoa butter would not work. Good luck!

Valentine's Day chocolates: passion fruit, muscovado sugar salted caramel, hazelnut gianduja and feuilletine, marzipan & cherry-raspberry pate de fruit.

Thanks Anna for bringing up this topic! I'm going to try out some of these recipes all of you have shared and check my bookshelves... I think I bought Cradle of Flavor when everyone on eGullet was cooking from it. Always meant to cook from that book, now might be the time. Anna, I'm looking forward to see what versions of nasi goreng you make.

CeeCee, actually yes, I like to reproduce the Dutch Indonesian food that I have had in the Netherlands but am very interested in the Indonesian & Malay versions too. Would you be willing to share your recipe?

A store with Dutch imports should have the Comimex brand of of spice mixes... They have many Indonesian spice mixes, including Nasi Goreng. Pulled out my packet and the ingredients are: onion, red pepper, carrot, leek, green beans, salt, coriander, garlic, sesame oil, yeast extract, mustard, malodextrine, potato flour, ginger, soy sauce, shrimp powder, beet extract, and lemon juice powder. You need to make the vegetables, rice, meat and eggs that go along with the spice packet. Might just be easier to make the whole thing from scratch. :-)

White chocolate with tart citrus or tropical fruits would be nice (calomandin, yuzu, passion fruit, carambola, kumquat, grapefruit). Riffing on grapefruit, grapefruit &Campari in white chocolate might work really well. Some other thoughts: - lemon curd - lemongrass & Thai flavors - key lime pie type filling - tapioca pearls, mango, pineapple - salty peanut or cashew gianduja - lime, coconut, and rum - IPA ganache - rhubarb Have fun with your new collection.

Testing out the snack cakes pan with a devils food chocolate & chocolate frosting.

The best way to cook tri tip is to grill it. Guess you are looking for the second best way to cook tri tip since you state that you can not grill or barbeque them at this time. To approximate grilling, this cast iron cooking technique from Alton Brown works well, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pan-seared-rib-eye-recipe.html.

Nope. I use room temperature moulds (usually somewhere between 68 - 73 F).

There were a few threads about this... Wybauw has a recipe for scraps that he calls black devils. Here is a link to one of the discussions, http://forums.egullet.org/topic/102882-wybauws-black-devils/

I make a dry caramel for flan. Also, the advice above is good... you need to let your flan rest for a few hours before unmolding, otherwise the caramel will not be saucy enough to come out with the flan (it will just remain attached to your flan pan). Something I have not seen anyone mention, be careful while making your caramel syrup, that sugar is hot!. If it lands on your skin it will burn and stick to your skin. Keep a bowl of ice water near while making caramel and if you get any hot sugar / caramel on your skin, plunge it in the ice water. Here is a link to some good caramel information from David Lebovitz http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/01/how-to-make-the/

Those Power Flowers look very interesting! Does not look like they are available in the USA right now. Can you buy them in Canada?

Happy New Year! Hotel last time was nice; I'd be happy staying there again. Lunch... would definitely prefer a quick lunch vs. a multi-course sit down plated lunch. Salads & sandwiches would be great (like we have had at NOTL & Vegas). Saturday night sit down school chef/students prepared meal also sounds good. Thanks for planning this. Would be glad to help out, just let me know.

While I have tried both rums (very different but both quite good), I haven't tried the Coquito yet but I'll let you know when I do. Rafa, have you had (or made) Coquito?

Holiday chocolate making...

Picked up a few items at the San Juan duty free store.

Quesmoy, good ideas. I was thinking of whipping the mixture less or not heating the sugar mixture to as high a temp. Definitely planning to let the tops skin over before capping / backing them.

Ruth, I had forgotten that JMA did marshmallows... I'll review my notes and use the microwave for reheats. Was the marshmallow the layer on top of the gummies?

I would like to fill some chocolate shells with marshmallow. Anyone have a good recipe? Can I use Greweling's recipe? Any changes necessary to convert a slab marshmallow recipe into a pipeable marshmallow recipe?

You can order it from Chocosphere... Dulcey is available in a 70 gram bar to a 3 Kg bag. https://www.chocosphere.com/default/catalogsearch/result/?q=dulcey

salted pumpkin caramels (inspired by a recipe on Food52) My first time making them, I think that they are quite tasty!

Beautiful copper preserving pot Okanagancook! How many quarts does it hold? P.S. I have that kitchen timer too!

Thanks for the advice boilsover.

Andie, thank you so much for your advice!

For jam and jelly making I am considering upgrading from my current set up and getting a maslin pan or copper preserving pan. Unfortunately I don't have access to either one of these to try them out before purchase. Is one better than the other for jam making? What are your experiences using either or both vessels? Thank you for any information you can provide.