ChrisZ

If you have the time, check out the khymos website. It's main attraction is a freely downloadable collection of recipes that use all sorts of different gelling agents. There's a little bit of information on each one, such as suggested ratios etc etc. Considering it's free, there's no reason not to have a look at it. At the very least, you can consider it a definitive list of every available option you have. While agar is fairly easy to get, you'll probably get better results with either carageenans or gellan. I find agar gels are too firm for a pleasant dessert, although that's personal. Many of the dairy desserts you buy in supermarkets use carageenans (which come from seaweed), and it's easy to mail-order. There are two types of gellan that give different results and you can mix them to get the exact texture you're after. However gellan is more expensive and I can understand that you might not have the time to experiment. I'll also add that the most common mousse I make is simply chocolate, and it doesn't have any gelatine in it at all. It sets with just egg yolks (I use a recipe that cooks the egg yolks so there's no risk of salmonella).

Ahh I never thought about it like this, even though it's obvious. I'm a sucker for a saltimbocca alla Romana, although it's traditionally made with veal I often see it on menus with chicken. That's a case where I really enjoy the flavour and saltiness that the prosciutto brings, the sage too. I can see the potential for a chicken parmigiana made using the method of a saltimbocca - flatten out the breast fillets, add cheese and proscuitto, then roll it up and serve slices on a tomato sauce. That's totally against the spirit of a deep-fried pub-style chicken parma, but sounds kinda nice. I'll add it to my to-do list.

Yes, totally agree. It's not like tomato sauce is subtle, especially the commercial pizza sauce you sometimes get on a dodgy pub parma. It's interesting to read through this thread and see most of the focus on the chicken. I've given a lot of thought to chicken parma's but more about what the final flavour mix should be. There are four big items to blend - chicken, tomato, cheese and ham. As I said above, I usually don't worry about the ham - mainly because I'm not really sure where it fits in. Ham and chicken isn't something I'm used to. There are so many different hams that could be used but I'm not really sure what effect I'm going for, so I don't try. I like adding basil because I understand that combination - tomato, basil and mozzarella make sense to me. In some ways I see chicken parma as chicken with sauce that's been stacked up. I make it so often that I've tried a few variations, but not much. I have tried using proscuitto a few times but didn't really notice it. It was lost under the tomato sauce - my fault for begin heavy handed with the sauce. I figured it wasn't worth the cost. I've tried a few different cheese and most recently I really like Jarlesburg. I imagine that Gruyere & Emmental would be similar. I sometimes splurge on a buffalo mozzarella for caprese salads and I imagine that it would make a wonderful parma, although I'd only add it at the last minute so it didn't melt completely. Would love to hear your thoughts about where you think the ham fits into the overall combination. The tip about frying the chicken in aged salty pork fat could bring the magic I've been missing!

Thanks for sharing this, I love gnocchi too. When making gnocchi, the enemy is gluten development. It's important to knead / work the dough as little as possible to avoid gluten development or the gnocchi will be tough and dense. The worse thing to do is make gnocchi in a mixmaster, as they'll end up like little rubber balls. I have a few gluten intolerant family members and I have experimented with making gnocchi using corn flour instead of wheat flour. Because corn flour has no gluten there's no risk of over-working the dough. Although I make them this way to accommodate their allergies, the end result is a drier, almost crisper gnocchi that is always very tender. They're noticeable different to wheat gnocchi. Personally, I think 100% corn flour isn't as good as perfect gnocchi made from wheat flour, but I think that a mix would certainly be worth experimenting with. A 50-50 mix of corn flour and soft wheat flour would be an interesting experiment (I'll do it one day…) I'm mentioning this because you say you're using OO flour, but unfortunately this isn't a consistent global standard. I think that in Italy OO is a softer / lower gluten flour for pasta and if the choice is between O and OO, then you'd use OO for gnocchi. In other countries OO is a high protein bread and pizza flour. It might be marketing (OO means Italian flour! Pay more!) but using a OO flour that isn't made in Italy could result in something very different. If you can find a low gluten cake flour then that would also be worth experimenting with. Thanks for the tip about piping, never thought of that. Will try it next time, although I'm not sure if the disposable piping bags I normally use will hold together with a gnocchi dough.

I think the lemon one is called "lemon delicious" - certainly google brings up lots of recipes with that name. Haven't had it for a long time but it's very light and fluffy, I don't think you add water on top like with a chocolate pudding, I think the pudding just ends up floating on sauce.

Ha! I ordered some N-zobit from Willpowder, and customs checked it - which I don't blame them for. But they didn't put the lid back on properly. That stuff is so superfine… I went to the post office to collect my parcel and noticed that there was white powder everywhere- walls and carpet. I handed them my slip and when the lady came back with the box, little puffs of white powder blew out the corners with every step. They looked at me very suspiciously. By the time I got home I was also covered in white powder. Anyway back to the topic. Volition - I'm surprised you mentioned vanilla beans because they're one of the things I thought was more outrageous at Simon Johnson. Perhaps I was confused but I'm pretty sure they were selling them for $18 each, which is way beyond the $6 each in the supermarket, and even that's expensive when you look at bulk packs or bundles available from other delis. I bought a pack of 10 or 20 vanilla beans once (maybe off eBay?) and it was really nice to have them in the cupboard and not worry about the cost or if it was worth using one for… If I had one $18 vanilla bean in the pantry I'd probably never use it, just thinking "I'm not worthy" every time I made something. I'm not sure where you're located, but I always had a great time shopping at the Mediterranean Supermarket (482 Sydney Rd Brunswick) for great stuff at low prices, lots of little things I've never seen anywhere else. I bought some porcini mushroom stock cubes there for about $2 that make the best mushroom risotto. Culina (in Ashburton) is another Melbourne gem. Apart from being the Australian distributors for Felchlin, they sell 100g jars of dried porcini mushrooms for $5. Compare that to $12 for 20g at Simon Johnson… I have to say I've never had a big problem with the prices at the Essential Ingredient, but then I haven't shopped there much for a long time. When they first opened in Prahran the shop was such a breathe of fresh air. I guess it's like Nickrey says, when you have a niche in the market you can charge what you like. In regards to herbs and spices, I've never paid much attention to them until I was given a gift box from Herbies (which is next to the the Essential Ingredient in Sydney). Although I don't cook much with herbs and spices, the few bits and pieces in the gift set were so obviously better and had so much more flavour that the supermarket equivalents that I could see there was obviously a high-end market for them too. When I look at the shelves of Simon Johnson, I'm most curious about the stuff with their own label on it. Things like their green / red curry pastes, pasta sauces, oils etc etc. Any specific brand they stock can be price-checked or researched on the internet, but their own stuff intrigues me. Perhaps I'll buy one of their smaller bottles of truffle oil and see how it compares.

So I work between two different offices in Sydney, and by coincidence both are almost next-door to a Simon Johnson. While I enjoy browsing the shelves occasionally, the prices are extraordinarily high. So the question is - what's good? Are the prices worth it? For curious overseas readers, Simon Johnson is an Australian importer of fine produce - they are the Australian distributor for Valhrona, for example. They also have a few shops around the country where they sell high end products, some of which are branded with their own label. I'm not sure, but they may have been the first foodie store to introduce a "cheese room" to Australians. Simon Johnson seems to be held in very high esteem by the local media and chefs, but the prices have always been breathtaking. One newspaper columnist calculated that for a certain brand of copper saucepans they stock it would be cheaper to fly overseas and buy them there, and fly back with them. So when I look at things like truffle oils and vanilla pastes, I have to wonder if the price is worth it. There are a few local importers and delis that sell the same sort of stuff at much lower prices. Any insight? What's worth it?

Yes, I can second that. I make a tart shell using 50% ground roasted pine nuts and 50% almond meal, and add ground up rosemary through it. Have only used it for lemon tarts so far, but it works beautifully and the rosemary adds a very complimentary note to it. I've wondered if lavender would work as well for something a bit different, but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks for those links, pbear, I enjoyed them. I agree with you that the question can be answered in different ways. For example, Escoffier was responsible for establishing the management structure of professional kitchens that has been used for over 100 years, and changed the way cooking as a profession was viewed. These changes are hugely significant but totally different to the influence someone like Julia Child & Jamie Oliver might have on a generation of home cooks, or the changes that Harold McGee could be said to have instigated even though he's not a cook. One thing I learned from Modernist Cuisine was that restaurant food being served to diners on the plate is relatively recent. Before then (the early 70s?) meals were dished up at the table. That alone is a big change, but once again not directly related to the food... Interesting question.

Not sure if this has been a global trend, but salt & pepper squid has become very popular down here over the last 10 - 15 years. I think I remember a local celebrity chef joking that it should be our national dish. You see it on menus everywhere - pubs, lunchtime cafes, etc etc. Most recipes are pretty simple and just call for deep fried squid to be dusted with salt & white pepper. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that salt & pepper squid consists of salt, pepper and squid. However limiting yourself to only those 3 ingredients gives you a bland result that doesn't taste anything like what you get in an Asian restaurant. After much experimenting, I found this recipe to be divine. Messy, but results are well worth it. It doesn't actually use white pepper, but a few other things that really make a difference. And the directions on how to fry the squid with cornflour also give much better results that the standard deep-fry batter. The white pepper I have was bought in powdered form specifically for squid, I keep it in an airtight jar.

Well when I make it I drink the beer first, which I thought was the point, so unless I'm doing it wrong there's no flavour imparted to the chicken...

All these suggestions are making my mouth water. I use a dark beer instead of wine when making shepherd's pie. I'm wondering if you can make a cheese fondue using beer instead of wine? Fondue's can be party friendly, just have lots of stuff on skewers handy...

I love tiramisu. I've eaten tiramisu almost every day for the last few years. However I am also a relatively recent convert to cannoli, especially with a sweet ricotta filling. If you decide to make / sell cannoli, then can I suggest you fill the tubes to order. There are several benefits - you can keep piping bags with the different fillings properly refrigerated, and the shells don't go soggy. There's something very satisfying about a really crunchy cannoli.

I had some fun with a thesaurus but everything else sounds pretentious. There aren't a lot of alternatives to the word 'nut' - online suggestions included 'nubbin', 'morsel', 'crux' and 'atom'. Alternative words for 'covered' include "envelope", "sheathed", "swaddled" and "encompassed". Assuming you stick with "chocolate", you get "chocolate swaddled atoms", or "chocolate enveloped nubbins". Alternatively there's the French / Italian approach of calling something nut shaped a "noisette" or "nocciola". Chocolate noisette sounds OK. Blether beat me with the Southpark reference but this thread did remind me of my favourite Monty Python sketch.

This thread reminded me that I tried adding silver luster dust to a white chocolate ganache, rather than brushing in on afterwards. While it kinda sparkled, it actually made the ganache look like it had split, even though it hadn't. I wouldn't do it again.

You probably have too much leavening agent. I'm guessing the recipe has something like bicarb soda to react with the sour cream. If you use too much then the cake will rise too fast, and all the gas will bubble out of the top before the cake has time to set, resulting in a sunken middle. So conversely, using less bicarb (and perhaps a cooler over) will result in less gas, but this allows the cake to firm up and set without losing it - so it won't sink. FWIW I have a chocolate sour cream cake recipe I make a lot, and I always had the same problem. One day I doubled the recipe but forgot to double the amount of bicarb, and it came out perfectly. Since then I have used half the amount of bicarb and have had perfect results every time.

When I worked in a bakery all our dummy cakes were made from polystyrene… I guess this is what you mean by "foam"? If you just need a spherical mould then you should be able to find small foam balls that might work for you, they're common in art and craft shops - our local chain calls them "polyfoam balls". If you have something like a geodesic mould and you want a dummy substance to fill it with, I'd ask at your local hardware store. Plaster of paris is dirt cheap and easy to mix, tubes of acrylic filler are also very cheap. There's a model making place near where I work that sells the stuff dentists use to make impressions for dentures, even that might work well but I guess not everyone has niche shops like that near them.

Just curious and thought it was worth double-checking… did you really mean acetone (nail polish remover) or where you thinking of acetic acid (vinegar)? If you meant acetic acid, i.e. a vinegar smell, then I would take it as an encouraging sign. BTW it's always worth perusing wikipedia for some general background info.

It's a shame you're not in Ireland, you could always bury it in a peat bog! Apparently good for a few thousand years... (and another link because I like the headline)

I'm not sure if it's 100% relevant, but I found an interesting study on the use of hot water to sterilise knifes in abattoirs. I was actually trying to find any scientific studies on whether hot water could dull a sharp knife, but this one ended up being more interesting. Commissioned by Australia's CSIRO, you can read the full article here. Bearing in mind that the study was on bare metal knives, and not a plastic pouch of food, one line was quite poignant: "Peel and Simmons (1978) showed that momentary immersion of knives at 82°C, on its own, was ineffective in decontaminating knives of Salmonella. When fats or proteins are present on them, immersion of knives at 82oC for as long as 10 s will not give satisfactory reduction in bacterial contamination (Snidjers et al., 1985)." So if you are going to use hot water immersion to pasteurise the surface of vacuum bagged food, ensure the water temperature is well over 82C and you immerse it for longer than 10 seconds. Perhaps those who are more knowledgeable on these topics will be able to judge if that study has any relevance to sous vide.

In terms of interesting flavour combinations, you could consider the Zumbo book. The first section is on macarons, and the cakes aren't necessarily layered, but they're definitely not conventional.

I was thinking about this thread recently, its been 3 1/2 years since it was started! Since then my wife & I have settled into a routine and now nearly always buy monkfish as our fish of choice. There's a fishmonger at the end of our street - very handy - and basically if they have monkfish, we get some. We're eating fish once or twice a week. The fishmonger told us it was his favourite too, but that when he was a kid they called it 'stargazer'. I've also heard it was called poor-man's lobster, but I don't think I've ever had a piece that I thought tasted like lobster. Most of the time I dust them in seasoned flour and shallow fry them in butter - that's my favourite method. Sometimes I marinate them in a mix of soy, grated ginger and sherry and then steam them, and sometimes I deep fry them using Heston's siphon-batter method. I hardly ever fry with crumbs / panko as the process is messy. Re-reading through this thread I notice that 3 years ago I mention Heston's "perfect" batter as something to consider, but also as something complicated. Now, having mixed it up more often than I can count now, it's actually pretty simple and it does work well. For the 2 of use a 1/2 recipe is fine. The batter is definitely crunchy!

I've had similar things happen, and I've asked similar questions here too. The answer is always to ask yourself if you want to risk your health for a few dollars worth of meat. I don't. So whenever I have had doubts I just chuck the bags. I don't like doing it but it means no worries. It is important to know - as mentioned above - that the harmful bacteria do not affect the look, taste and smell of food in any way. You cannot smell or taste listeria, salmonella, ecoli, b cereus, clostridium etc etc. Conversely, there are many types of spoilage bacteria that can stink to high heaven but they won't harm you. Some types of lactobacillus will happily breed at temperatures over 63C. Recently I has a bag of pork belly start to puff up after 2 days at 58C. The bag inflated to the point I thought it would pop, so I took it outside and opened it to see what was going on inside. It smelt worse than one of my son's nappies - actually it smelt worse than a bin full of nappies that had been sitting in the sun for a week. It was smelly - spoilt beyond recovery - but it wasn't dangerous and I even tasted the meat to see what it was like, with no ill effects at all (the pork was not that bad, considering, but there was no way I would eat all of it). I think about this a fair bit because about a year ago I got very bad food poisoning - bad as in collapse and call an ambulance bad. At the time, we were housesitting and all my sous vide and other modernist bits were packed up in boxes, so I could safely lay the blame at a chicken kebab I had for lunch. I was very sick for a week and didn't feel 100% for about a month. I have often wondered what the conversation with the paramedics and doctor would have been like if I had to explain that my lunch was salmon I had cooked at 45C, or beef cheeks cooked for 3 days at 60C etc etc I don't think they would have been very sympathetic and I probably wouldn't have been so sure myself. I never want to be that sick again, so if I have to throw out a few bags now and again then so be it.

Manly is lovely but touristy, not a huge amount to recommend despite there being so much choice. Hugos, which is right on the Manly ferry wharf, has great pizzas and the times I've been the service has been impeccable. The next suburb over from Manly is Freshwater, where you will find the restaurant "Pilu" on the beach. Pilu is great, they have fantastic set-course lunch specials. I used to live on the same road and although it was too expensive to have dinner there often, once they introduced their set-course lunch (which changes every 2 weeks) we were able to pop down more often. The restaurant is in a beautiful beach house overlooking Freshwater beach. As for high-tea, the nicest view is probably at the Gunners Baracks aka The Tea Room. The same company also does high tea at the QVB (Queen Vitoria Building) in the centre of Sydney - but the views there are of designer shops and not the harbour. Less formal (not quite a high-tea) but also with a great setting and view is the cafe Burnt Orange.

The issue of pasteurisation is an interesting one. Using sous vide long and slow pasteurisation is likely to give a different outcome to the high temperature, short time pasteurisation that is typically used. I have been intrigued by both sides of the argument surrounding pasteurised milk and cheese making. I had assumed that one big advantage of making your own cheese is that - if you have a source - you can use raw milk.