ChrisZ

In theory pectin should work, I have a recipe for a chocolate cake that uses pectin in the glaze and it freezes and thaws very well. What you want to avoid is syneresis - the weeping or leaking of water when it thaws out. I just did a google search for pectin and syneresis and it came up with this page, it might help you?

I really liked Chef too, a lot. This thread is good to re-visit when looking for a film to watch, but it's pretty obvious that many of the films listed here aren't "food films" but just films that have a bit of food in them. Chef is a real food film. It's so much more subtle than Ratatouille, the language feels authentic. Scenes like the father buying his son his first knife are really nice, but done in a very casual way - nothing like the in-your-face lecturing you get in Ratatouille. And now that I have seen the film, I always butter the outside of my toasties! The chef's rant about the chocolate lava cake had me giggling for ages. Another film which hasn't been mentioned yet is "The five year engagement". Like most of the other films mentioned, this is not a true "food film" like Babette's feast - but it does have a very authentic food related theme. At the start of the film, one of the two main characters is an up & coming chef at a high-end, modernist restaurant. When the couple move for his fiancé's career, he finds himself in a small town with no other options except to work jn a deli / sandwich shop. The film itself was pretty average, almost boring, but I did enjoy the food-related scenes and could really sympathise with the chef character.

I was given "Dessert Divas", by Christine Manfield for Christmas. She is a very well know pastry chef in Australia. The recipes are complex, interesting and gorgeous. I haven't made anything from it yet and I think any attempts will need a lot of forward planning. The book doesn't seem to be available on Amazon, so it may take some effort to buy outside of Australia - or at least ordering it from an Australian site. I found an article/review that includes one of Manfield's most famous desserts, so click here for a indication of what the whole book is like.

It's recommended somewhere to blanch garlic if you want to include it in sous vide bags. I remember trying the blanching in milk thing (with sous vide cooking) and was surprised what a difference it made.

My wife was looking for a solid egg-shaped mould that was in 1 piece, ie. you did't need to make 2 halves and join them. With a bit of internet searching she found some guy in china that makes all sorts of moulds out of silicone. She emailled to ask if he had what she wanted and although he didn't, he offered to make one for her. It cost $8, arrived quickly, and works very well. However it is a single mould so only 1 egg is made at a time. It's hard to describe but basically once it is filled up and set, you just turn in inside-out and the silicone stretches enough that the egg pops out. I'd take a photo but I don't know where it is. It's not suitable for mass-production but I guess you could buy several of them if you needed large quantities. I was impressed at how quick, fast and cheap the process was. I like watching Heston's TV shows and he often uses custom-made moulds as part of the overall theme of a dish. It looks impressive and expensive but in reality, it's possible to DIY silicone moulds and certainly cheap enough to do yourself over the internet.

Just curious... I like massaman curry and have always thought of it as a sweet curry. I've been looking at recipes and nothing jumps out at me as a source of sweetness. The recipes I have seen online have no sugar, and a bit of googling suggests that coconut milk isn't very sweet and is comparable to cows milk. So is it only me who thinks of it as a sweet curry, or is there something in the recipe that contributes to this perception? (Am also happy for links to good recipes. Keen to try it in the pressure cooker, possibly with oxtail)

The Australian Woman's Weekly (a magazine that also publishes lots of cook books) published a book of children's birthday cakes in 1980. It was a huge hit and sold over half a million copies. It is still being reprinted over 30 years later. The book is part of many Australian's childhood. It was a big thing for kids in the 80's to choose which cake they wanted from THE BOOK. Practically every family had a copy. It was such a big thing that a stand-up comedian has recently done an entire show devoted to talking about the birthday cakes in the book. Certainly I remember having big discussions in the school playground about which cake in the book had the most lollies on it - there was one called "sweet shop" that looked impressive but I always wanted the "piano" because it used white chocolate as piano keys. The cakes are designed to be decorated by home cooks using biscuits and lollies that are easily found in supermarkets. If you were super keen you could probably order the book from outside Australia, but otherwise just google "womans weekly birthday cakes" and you will see lots of results. I'm getting nostalgic just thinking about it. I was recently given a new copy of the book as a gift and I'm already looking forward to making the cakes in it for my children.

I haven't lived there for a few years now, but even though it's touristy I liked browsing the Harrods food level. I never actually bought anything there, but it was always interesting. I'm not sure if you're looking for somewhere to do your weekly grocery shopping or places that are worth a trip to buy stuff, but simply from a 'pleasant way to spend an afternoon' you can have fun at the big tourist traps like Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges & Harrods. Fortnum & Mason may have changed their layout in the past few years, but they used to have all the interesting stuff in the lower-ground level with hardly any people there - so the big crowds would be on the main floor but you can escape them downstairs quite easily (is that still the case?) I was living there in 2007 when they opened the first Whole Foods in Kensington. The concept of a 3-story supermarket blew my mind back then and once again I enjoyed looking around even though I hardly bought anything. Might not be novel to Americans, but I'd never seen anything like it before - certainly not in 2007. Even though these are big, obvious and reasonably touristy places they still fit your description of places that carry unusual, specialized, or otherwise interesting and useful selections of ingredients and kitchen articles.

I make tiramisu often, roughly every second week. I've been using the recipe in "Heston Blumenthal at Home", I like the ratios. There is a small amount of gelatine in the recipe but it really just stabilises, I wouldn't say it adversely affects the texture. Certainly doesn't make it mousse like. In fact - a small amount of gelatine may enable you to whip more air into the cream, resulting in a lighter and not heavier result. When I was MUCH younger I worked in a bakery and all the whipped cream had a gelatine-based stabiliser added. It's just down to ratios and precision, gelatine doesn't automatically mean firm or jelly-like. If you are using gelatine then I would definitely suggest using gelatine leaves for accuracy and consistency, as powdered gelatine is not standardised. In fairness I haven't tried making it without the gelatine, so I guess I don't really know how much affect is has on the result. But having made the recipe dozens of time I can definitely say that the result is lovely with the gelatine in it.

Well while we're at it, it's probably worth mentioning that the flavour you get from your caramel will depend on the temperature you take your sugar to, which corresponds to the colour of caramel. The darker the caramel the stronger the flavour, and the more bitter it is. A lighter caramel will have a milder flavour and can taste more sweet. As I have gotten older I have really appreciated the richness of a dark caramel that is almost burnt, and for me that's the fun and challenging part of making a caramel - getting the sugar as far as possible without burning it. I'm happy to put my hand up and say that even though making a caramel is simple, making a caramel that is rich and dark and exactly the right colour is not trivial. Luckily sugar is cheap, I've burned more than a few sauces before... definitely takes practise. I usually see a bit of smoke. While it sounds like you are making creme caramels, you can also make a lovely caramel sauce using just sugar, cream and milk. I use a ratio of 4:4:3 for sugar, cream and milk (400g sugar, 400g cream, 300g milk). Make a caramel and pour in the cream and milk. It will bubble up like crazy and you have to be careful not to get a steam burn, but after it settles down you stir it to dissolve it all together and you'll have a delicious caramel sauce.

Just thought I'd add that the "trick" with a dry caramel is not to add all the sugar at once. Start with a small amount, let it melt, and then add the rest of the sugar slowly, stirring it into the melted stuff. This way you will avoid burns.

Like a muffin but lighter, made with almond meal. Incidentally, we all had a full breakfast at Grit, I just commented on the friands because they were fresh out of the oven and especially good. As we drove past various small towns, we often looked them up on urban spoon and trip advisor to see what the eating was like. We were interested to see that in many small towns, the no 1 ranked restaurants were Indian. I don't really know why this is the case, but I found it interesting.

So we've returned from our trip... lots of driving, lots of small towns, not much time. The two most interesting finds were Grit in Goulburn, and The Proprietor in Albury. Grit was a good find because it is right next to The Big Merino. It might not be well known overseas, but it seems to be a peculiarly Australian thing to create a tourist attraction by building a big version of something. We have the big prawn, the big pineapple and 150 other big things dotted around the country which are all giant crappy tourist traps. Goulburn has the Big Merino - a 12 metre concrete sheep - and next to it is a giant bakery the size of a supermarket. The bakery itself is pretty average but considering that it's really just a truck stop just off the main motorway, it's probably a better bakery than you'd expect. But in a relatively small shed next door is a small cafe called Grit. This has proper food, excellent coffee, and in comparison to the standard of food at your average roadside truck stop or service station, it's a real gem. The Big Merino is in a great location - just off the freeway, easy exit and entry ramps, the right distance from Sydney for a stop, huge carparks etc etc. With Grit hiding in the corner, there's no reason to settle for average food and poor coffee any more. The freshly baked friands we had were great. Even better was The Proprietor in Albury. Another cafe, kinda hipster. Can't really describe what was so special about it except it was simply delicious. I had possibly the best coffee I've ever had there. In the Modernist Cuisine chapter on coffee, they talk about the "god shot". At the Proprietor, I had the latte equivalent of a "god shot". The coffee they use is hand roasted in Brunswick St, Melbourne, although that's only one part of the overall equation. The poached pears with dried berries were divine. It's just a great cafe.

Timely thread... we'll be doing the Melbourne - Sydney return drive over the Christmas period and would welcome some new places to stop. Unfortunately I have to agree with Haresfur's observation that most country bakeries are a little unexciting. May squeeze in a trip to Bendigo too so will try to sample the pies. It might be a bit obvious, but the Beechworth bakery is quite unexpected for a town of that size and worth the detour - it's a lovely town too. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the bakery (which I realise makes this a bit useless) but I did have an exceptional pie in Berrima. Google suggests it may have been the Gumnut Patisserie, but I can't be sure. Would love some suggestions for the places we regularly stop at: Yass, Albury and Kyneton.

For small appliances that rapidly lose their appeal - definitely a juicer. So hard to clean. If it wasn't for the cleaning then great. Freshly juiced apples are especially good, but not quite worth the effort of cleaning the machine. At various times I have owned espresso machines but didn't use them much. The main problem I have is that I really love coffee but if I have more than 1 a day I don't sleep properly. If I'd had one at work or when I was out then I wouldn't have another at home.

Pumpkin (or butternut squash) blended with an amaretti biscuit.

Worth emphasising this. The key is to roast the stuff first. Yes there are different recipes / techniques for white and brown stocks but the OP only asked about a satisfying solid stock, so I don't think it really matters about semantics. Roasted wings / thighs etc etc make a huge difference. And if the stock is simply too weak, just reduce it down until it gets stronger...

My Father in Law cooks a lot of chicken hearts, he is Italian (Calabria region). I assume it's some sort of regional speciality. Chicken hearts are the cheapest thing I've seen in our supermarket meat department. I think he braises them with peppers (capsicum) and onions, they're very simple and tasty. When I was younger we frequently had lambs brains, which were a favourite of mine. We always had them crumbed and quickly fried. I have cooked them a handful of times as an adult, and I slice them up first before I crumb them so they're more like brain scallopine. Great with garlic butter. I haven't had them for a long time though, although I ordered them at a restaurant once which raised the eyebrows of the friends I was with. Lambs Fry / lambs liver was another regular meal when I was a kid, but I didn't like it much at all. However as an adult I re-discovered it, and now I love it. I like liver rare, and with a rich sauce. I often use a port reduction and lots of caramelised onions. I've never tried sweetmeat, and it's on the to-do list.

I'm no expert but I thought the main issue is sweetness. There is always variations between brands but generally the higher the % the less sweet / more bitter. It can come down to personal preference but if you're using a very high % cocoa then always taste as you go in case you need more sugar. And the opposite is true as well, if you're using a lower % cocoa - especially down below 50% - then depending on the brand of chocolate it may be sweeter than the recipe creator intended.

Love the resurrection of the vol-au-vent! You should have a pineapple hedgehog out for when your guests arrive. As mentioned above, Baked Alaska was very popular. I'd say it is now more unfashionable than a grand marnier soufflé. While Lemon Merengue Pie may well have been popular back then, I'd disagree that it's now unfashionable! I see them everywhere and they're delicious. Fondue is probably the most obvious "unfashionable" meal but that's a whole theme to itself.

One of my favourite desserts to make is from "Bentley", by Brent Savage. Sorry - haven't been able to find a recipe or photos online of the real thing, but here's one of my earlier attempts (which doesn't look anything like the photo in the book). Basically it's pears poached in saffron, sauternes and orange blossom water, served with a honey mousse and a honey gel. The saffron poaching liquid is served with the pears. The thing I love about this dessert is that the mousse is served on a base made of pureed puff-pastry, olive oil and salt. With the honey mousse it has a similar flavour to baklava, but without the heavy stickiness. By poaching balls of pear instead of whole pears, it's easy to judge the cooking time perfectly.

I always find these questions difficult because 'best' is very different to 'favourite'. If you really want the "best" then you're better off looking at professional reviews, for example Time Out. Because to seriously list the best would mean you have to eat at all of them. FWIW we used to live close enough to walk to an Italian restaurant called Artigiano. They didn't make the Time Out top 100 list, but they have an Oscar on the wall, donated by a friendly cinematographer. I don't remember the food that well but my wife and I now have photos of us holding a genuine Oscar trophy, which isn't something you can do in every Italian restaurant!

Is there a particular type of cheese you'd use in a New York Cheesecake? When I've seen baked cheesecakes they've usually been made with ricotta. I've always associated Kraft Philadelphia with refrigerated cheesecakes, never occurred to me that you could bake it. There are a few Italian patisseries around my parts that are well know for their baked ricotta cheesecakes, I'd be interested to know how a New York Cheesecake would differ from a traditional Italian one.

Personally I think the pie crust is more critical than the spices, and I prefer a very buttery crust made with almond meal. Many people have mentioned caramel, but you can also caramelise apples and use that - works well. Cook loads of apples with butter and brown sugar and eventually you get apple caramel - brilliant. Nuts and glace ginger would be worth trying too. A more subtle approach is to leave the apples un-spiced, and flavour the custard or cream you serve it with. A splash of rosewater in custard or cream is different enough to be noticed but so mild it probably won't offend anyone.

I had heard that Kobe beef was very expensive, and when I travelled to Japan I was interested to see exactly how much it was. I saw a few butchers around and did the conversions and figured out that the price was roughly double what I paid for supermarket beef in Australia. While the price was expensive compared to a supermarket, it was roughly comparable to top-end 'gourmet' butchers. Then after a few days I realised that the prices listed in Japan were for 100g, not per kilogram! So I was off by a factor of 10… yes the stuff is expensive! Many years ago the weekly food section of our local paper surveyed a bunch of local chefs and asked them how they would cook Kobe beef. The journalist wanted to know if Kobe beef needed to be cooked differently to regular beef, and how chefs would treat such an expensive product. Surprisingly, the results were very mixed and there was a lot of disagreement. Some chefs thought the beef should be rare, others thought the extra fat required longer cooking. The other thing I recall from Japan is that they just eat beef differently. Whenever we had beef, it was always cut into thin strips, cooked quickly on a grill and served to us almost one strip at a time. Maybe it was just the places we were at, but I got the impression that sitting down to a huge steak dinner wasn't something they did a lot of over there...