IndyRob

Courtesy Chattacha @ Wikicommons. It's been over 40 years since I was in Malta and experienced my first pastizzi. This was probably followed by at least 50 more. I honestly can't remember a single other foodstuff while I was there. For those that may not know, pastizzis are ricotta and egg filling (among others, like a pea & meat filling) in a Pâté feuilletée-like pastry. Puff pastry produces a rough facsimile, but it falls far short of the real thing. I've occasionally been trying to make proper pastizzi ever since. Every so often I've searched the internet. I know I've been lead down the wrong path several times, but now it looks like more credible info (and videos) are available. There are even travel packages now where you can go to Malta and be schooled on site. But I don't think I want to go quite that far. I originally thought that the ricotta mixture was important, but I've since decided it isn't the critical element. I've made my own ricotta from cow and goat milk, but in testing one of my failed attempts at making the pastry, I found a little bit of the essence hiding somewhere in the decidedly non-flaky pastry. The secret is in there, I'm sure. I'm gearing up to make another attempt and want to try to minimize the mistakes. I found two videos that appear to corroborate other.... Commercial Aussie Operation.... Someone's Grandma...(much longer) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8454701352872277913# So now come my questions. It looks like the four in the first video is "BAKERS EXTRA FLOUR" which does seem to be an Australian product. It looks like the second is using King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose. Would these be roughly equivalent? Would one want to develop gluten in the dough? It doesn't appear that any special precautions are taken to keep things cold. Wouldn't this be desirable? Maybe they're working so fast that it isn't an issue. The pastry layers are made by rolling the dough into a long snake which is cut up. At around 0:58 in the first video, it looks as though a thumb is plunged into the cut edge of a piece which then is worked into a cup-like shape into which the filling goes. Does this technique exist elsewhere in pastry making, or is it unique to pastizzi?

I suspect that it's a bit of different equation for each person. As noted, Kevin wan't interested in proving anything. Spike, on the other hand, has benefited from his participation in my eyes because of this very thread. When it was mentioned that he seemed to be doing well, I had to go look to see what he was doing. I think that Jen being sent home early-on pretty much removed any disgrace that might be felt by those eliminated. I could be wrong, but I don't see Jen as someone who wants to put herself out there commercially, but does in a professional sense. I think she was there to win - which only added to her disappointment. Anyone from the earlier seasons that haven't found their final calling could only do well to get back into spotlight and claim the 'All Star' association.

By easy to work, are you talking about kneading or stretching/rolling (or both)? I guess they're related, but during kneading you can work through it by force (either by using a modern machine, or using the Julia Child method of beating the dough against a board as though employing a medieval flail against a belligerant Huguenot). Chicago Deep Dish doughs are a joy to work with because you don't want to develop much, if any, gluten. Just mix to incorporate. The result is something like biscuit dough that readily mashes around in a pan. But for regular pizzas you want the gluten development. Hydration is a factor as well. Highly hydrated doughs will be looser and seem to be easier to work, but they can be stickier - and sneakier - contracting over time (especially on an oiled surface). So that 12" round you rolled out may well be 10" by the time you check back on it. Rest is probably the most important factor. Once a dough seems to be working against you, give it the cold shoulder and walk away for 5 minutes. It will relax. Then you can sneak up on it again and impose your will. I think tossing probably came about as a way of coaxing the dough with minimum violence and a maximum of finesse. Although tossed pizzas aren't generally my favorites, the technique does seem sound (and is impressive when performed well). One afternoon I devoted some time to learning this technique. Just as I was starting to see some indications of success, I realized that an 8 foot ceiling just wasn't going to be sufficient.

By intimidating, I meant for the reader. All that will expand to a copious amount of text. What if one created a sort of summary article for eggs that listed all these considerations, but didn't try to answer them all - but instead linked to relevant existing content? e.g. Egg An egg is a [blah, blah, blah] Egg Dishes There are at least 100 dishes that feature eggs as a main component[blah, blah, blah], but the egg also [blah, blah, blah] Some of these links could certainly go to eGCI, or sometimes even eG threads. Over time, the wiki nature could bring these 'in house' so to speak, by creating better content based on that original inspiration, but that fits it into the framework better. Sometimes, a better 'in house' version may not be feasible (for instance, some 'HowStuffWorks.com' content is really well done) but it could be a symbiotic relationship.

Spike outstrategized himself. Early on I noted that there was an unusual focus on the strategy of putting out the weakest dish first to neutralize the other teams' strongest dish (normally, what strategies and tactics there may be are closely held). But I was never clear on why the other team would necessarily put their strongest dish first (presumably, everyone would think their dish the strongest). Why give a point away right off the bat? Anyway, I figured the strategy would play prominantly in the results somehow. Regarding the challenge, Collichio is pondering the same thing. As a game, this was a fun twist. As a serious competition, not tasting everyone's food was lame.

Well, I may cause some eyes to roll, but if we're talking vegetarian and not vegan, there are some pretty big loopholes to take advantage of. In fact, despite being a meat loving individual with little love for veg, on more than one occasion I've reflected on the fact that for two weeks straight I had eaten a vegetarian diet without even thinking. Imagine a table laid out with spaghetti carbonara, lasagna, pizza, bread and butter, gnocchi, etc. I don't think most people would think vegetarian. Dairy and eggs are allowed, but for cheese you'll need to find cheese made with vegetable rennet. Pasta, crepes, cheese, bread, butter, cream sauces - all legal. So cheat (well, it feels wonderfully like cheating to me). Oh sure, you can add some veg - combine a marinara sauce with a bechamel. Oh, wait tomatoes are fruit, not veg. Fine, eggplant then. Or is that a fruit too? Also, see if you can plea bargain up to pescetarian, which could give you fish and possibly crustaceans. [ETA] Oh, and for me Morel mushrooms are the most meaty non-meat thing I've ever tasted. Not a particularly seasonal bit advice, but perhaps if you're still at it come spring.

Oh, okay. I thought you were getting one anyway. In that case, I would assume that sous vide wouldn't work. Like Alton Brown, I'm a big fan of multi-taskers (like my Kitchen Kettle), but am not a big fan of combination products. I got a Cuisinart combo Blender/Food Processor once. It was merely adequate as a blender and inferior as a food processor.

I wouldn't give up on sous vide without a try. I use a Presto Kitchen Kettle without any circulation and don't measure variations of more than one degree F with a thermapen (once the temp stabilizes, which is the trick). If you do the same thing every time you should be able to find some measure of repeatability. You may find you have to set it to, say, 60 degrees if you want 56 degrees, but that's something you can experiment with. This thing looks like it would be fun for things like hollandaise and choux paste.

Well, if you're like me, you'll want to try a few different things in short. So beef filets or pork chops would be good starts. Anything tender that benefits by being cooked precisely. I would hold off on the tougher cuts until the novelty has worn off a little, so the longer cook times aren't tying up the machine for long periods.

Which leads me to a question I forgot to ask. Does anyone know how Bugles are made? I'm sort of curious about how they get the shape, but more interested in the creation of airy, crunchy corn-based things along these lines. It doesn't seem very different from Cap'n Crunch cereal (if you replace sugar with salt). Although I can buy Bugles in the US, I'm paying $2.50 for a small 6 oz package (on sale).

You're right, but my thinking was more along the lines of not making it intimidating. I rummaged around my noggin for an ingredient to use as a challenging example of how it might be organized. Eggs. Common, cheap, versatile, sometimes surprising....Perfect. Okay, we need to talk about egg grading, sizing and aging. Organic eggs, white vs. brown. Oh, wait...what about duck eggs, quail eggs, ostrich eggs. Turtle eggs? Oh man, all the fish eggs.... Preparations of a whole egg itself - hard boiled (including all of the water temp strategies, and well as oven methods), soft boiled, fried (sunny side up, over easy/medium/hard, etc), baked, poached, scrambled, ommelettized, frittata'd, etc. Plus hybrids such as deviled eggs. Then there are the egg components, the yolk and the two whites. Oh, and even the shells have culinary applications by themselves. Emulsifying, whipping, tempering... Hollandaise, Mayonnaise, Souffles, Meringue,... Better talk about food safety too. Baking... Now there's another whole subject. Creaming, leavening, etc. Of course, we've got to get into the chemistry. There's another whole section. Then there are affinities. What ingredients go well with eggs? People that actually have a culinary education could probably take all of this even farther. But while I've sought to provoke feelings of intimidation, I also know that I've probably chosen the most multi-faceted of all ingredients. If eggs could be dealt with properly, anything could.

LOL They're on my list! ← Three little words. To. Die. For. ← OK, now try dipping those in softened good unsalted butter. Prepare to die all over again. Then again and again.... I was looking to play with combining chocolate with something crunchy and salty when I found these. They're good by themselves, but pipe some chocolate into them let it cool and they're over the top. I think I'm going to get pressed into service the next time my wife needs to take food to the office for a birthday or something. But I also found out that there's a chocolate and peanut butter version. I just tried these. Replace the little dab of caramel with a little dab of peanut butter, and the sugar coating with a very thinly sprayed chocolate coating. Pretty good, but not as successful, IMHO. The sprayed on chocolate coating gives them a mouth feel that's, well, dusty. Plus, it creates a barrier between the tongue and the salt.

Here's Thomas Keller doing it for a whole roasted chicken. This one with Zimmern shows it closer, although his hand is in the way...

It would be an interesting thing to explore, but it would have to be defined further and have a focus (or a limited number of foci). Julia Child had to do a lot of painful editings down. I think this book, if in name only, seems to be close to what you want. But it looks like the reader reviews are not so great. I may have even seen this book in a store, but put it back on the shelf after browsing.

I think the procedure and recipe would be met with general approval with the pizza maniacs over at pizzamaking.com. I think almost everyone there swears by cold fermentation. The amount of sugar might raise some eyebrows, but it can work both ways. Yeasties like sugar, but the point of the cold ferment is to slow them down. But it also improves browning so it's not unreasonable to start here and adjust if you feel you should. The one part I may personally quibble with is the stone placement. They are correct in that it can make a very big difference, but different ovens vary considerably. For me the bottom is best. But when I took my show on the road once, I nearly burnt the bottom even though that oven could only go to 500 - whereas I usually bake at 550 at home. The top surface of the 'road oven' got extremely hot while the oven was on. Upon reflection I realized that the bottom heating element was working a lot harder to maintain a 500 degree temp than my better insulated oven was while maintaining 550. So I wouldn't say I'd recommend one or the other, but just be prepared to adjust accordingly.

Here's another video that shows him doing one chicken all the way through... Still hard to follow, but it's all there By his look at the end, I suspect he's tired of "Break down a chicken for us Hung!"

I don't think this s what you're looking for, but it looks interesting nonetheless... For the ingredient side, I just found the USDA National Nutrient Database. No descriptions, but as a list it looks pretty comprehensive and includes nutritional and weight data. It can be downloaded in ASCII or MS Access formats. It's possible that other resources could use the NDB_No ID to identify ingredients.

Yes, I think you'd want to let it rest properly and then bag it and plunge it into an ice bath. Then get it sliced and bring it back up to temp gently. But I don't think I've seen this thread before so I'd like to play the devil's advocate. Yes, clearly this works. But is it best? I have my doubts. ChefCrash took some nice pictures showing the sliced frozen roast but not the sliced traditional version. We lack a control. The pics of the slices clearly show some grey/brown overcooked sections on the outside (acceptable as they may be in proportion). But doing the same cut sous vide, I know that I got none of this. This makes me wonder about the traditional preparation. Certainly, as the heat moves inward, we're less concerned with transferring heat via air as moisture. And perhaps a colder center mediates this. It's an interesting question. But I still think I would do it sous vide and then heavily season the outside and blast the outside with heat before slicing thinly - folding the slices over each other to get some crust with every bite.

Something just occurred to me. While Alton Brown occasionally likes to mirthfully seem to end run the lawyers, he really has not ventured into sous vide or, oh, say, heating an indoor oven with charcoal to 900 degrees. Is Richard on a bullet train to barrister town? And what kind of charcoal was that anyway?

Tom C said, in her defense, that she had never had to have stitches before. So when they said "You're going to need stitches" she probably just accepted that as meaning "now". But now I know how I can get to the finals if I can ever get on. As soon as they start the timer, I'll grab a knife and give myself a whack. By the end I'll be bandaged up like a mummy, but I can challenge for the title with my fried bologna sandwich.

If the CO2 did anything, it didn't seem to be noticed. I think I like the cheese spheres, but would have to work out a different geometry. There was a lot of cheeseless surface area. The show seems to suffer for only being 30 minutes.

My kneejerk reaction is that if you want to follow a specific recipe, but don't have the ingredients required, it's time to rethink your approach. But, while I haven't barded a bird, I am skeptical of barding. Brining seems to me to be far better for a variety of reasons. Or, if introducing fat is the desired thing, lardons, rather than barding, seem more appropriate (but then you're back to the original problem). Barding seems like it could be equalled with a good amount of basting. That's basically all that's happening there, right? Well, besides the bacon flavor. What about sausage? Can you get sausage? This might be crazy, and I wouldn't recommend it except as an experiment, but what if you cut a V into each breast and stuffed it with sausage (extra points if you can get this done while keeping the skin intact)? Meh, I think you'd have to cut the breast across the grain to get the fat to flow where it should. If sausage is available, and you have some butcher's twine, you could form some strips wrapped around twine that could be draped around the bird. Mash a bacon strip sized bit of sausage on a piece of wax paper, lay a couple strands of twine on top, and top that with more sausage. Press together and drape on bird. When roasted, strip the sausage off the twine and add to gravy.

I don't know about duck eggs, but a tip that helped me is to peel the eggs under running water. Once the water runs between the egg and the membrane it will help to separate them.

I have comcast and the science channel. You might check hulu.com. They do have a sneak peek clip up. Perhaps they'll have the full episodes. http://science.discovery.com/videos/blais-off-blais-off-sneak-peek.html

In his blog, Tom Collichio has clarified that the undercooked frittatas were not raw. They were safe to eat, but undercooked. On to this week, I just noticed that Rick Moonen is doing videos each week recreating the winning recipe. Dale's simply presented dish turns out to be suprisingly complex.