runwestierun

The greatest chef competition in the world. Here's a wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocuse_d'Or Here's a video on Rasmus Kofoed, a Bocuse superstar: Here is a video from a previous competition: Hope that helps.

Just a note about ice cream, because you say you are new to this. Ice cream, even though this might not be intuitively obvious, is one of the 10 largest sources of food borne illnesses in America. It is very easy to make someone sick or worse with ice cream. In fact, where I live, I can get a catering licence and a food handler's licence, but it excludes making ice cream. I am not allowed to make it for public consumption without specific licencing. You must be sure you know what you are doing, you can't just throw a recipe together. Just so you know.

Ha ha! I moved to Tiny Town 5 years ago and learned early on to order what I wanted from Amazon grocer rather than try to hunt down ingredients at the Chef-Boy-R-D Mart. I appreciate Amazon so much, especially when I want to try something of a new ethnicity. They were also a huge help when I was trying to sample all the sardines on rworange's list. I also got most of what I've needed for experiments from Modernist Cuisine. No beta carrageenan here in Tiny Town, only Velveeta. Yay Amazon!

You could incorporate highchef's pickle idea with capers on the gravlax and cucumber.

I remember a family care giver waxing euphoric over the bastard eggs her mother used to make. Whaaaat? Yeah, she says, they were fried eggs but she used to spoon the fat over them to lightly cook the tops. That is what I thought basted eggs were. My grandmother would fry them in the same pan that she'd fried the bacon in and baste the hot bacon grease over them with a spoon, no flipping. Am I wrong?

Instead of smoked salmon on black bread, you could lighten it up as gravlax on cucumber rounds. That would be fresh and a little crunchy, the anti-stroganoff.

Did you bake the bottom custard section protected in a water bath? I think if you half submerged the pan in boiling water it might take care of the curdling.

You know, he's turning 80. What about caviar? It would certainly mark the event as special. And they sell it at Russ and Daughters...

I really like frog's legs. We would hunt them as children at dusk, bonk them on the head with a cudgel. I am allergic to shellfish so I've filled this void with reptiles and amphibians. I've never had snake but I've eaten lots of gator (sausage, pate, jambalaya) and turtle (soup and stew). I've eaten gator only in restaurants and all the turtle I've eaten has been prepared by my grandmother. I flour the frog's legs (no egg) and pan fry them in butter, nothing fancy. But I think they are delicious. Thenks for the post, now I have to go try some snake!

I've ordered custom M&M's for parties and I generally put them atop a little dollop of stabilzed whipped cream on a mocha pots de creme verrine. They are so front and center atop a verrine that people have to notice the design on them. If I put them out in a bowl I have to buy way more of them and only the people interested in a random handful of candy at a party notice them.

I have piped mine and I really like the look. I used a large star tip. I hit it with a torch for maximum contrast, so the edges were very dark, not soft brown. I liked the contrast. Alas, no pictures...

My bad. Sorry.

I disagree, I would cut it. Sous vide cooking time is directly related to the thickness of the meat. You can get a good idea of cook time from Douglas Baldwin's charts. http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Pulled_Pork He has pork shoulder (butt and picnic cuts) no more than 70mm thick at 155F for 24 hours. Pork shoulder is such a fatty cut that it doesn't dry out when cut. If you don't trim the meat and leave some fat in the bag you'll be fine.

I will sometimes use iceberg (but I confess, more often romaine) if I am making a salad with a hot grilled piece of steak. It seems to hold up well next to the heat.

I have noticed that many bao recipes start with an hour to let the yeast bloom. Sometimes the yeast is with a 1:1 mixture of water and flour. I don't know why, maybe it's just tradition. I am quite happy with this recipe which uses instant yeast. It takes much less effort and time than the traditional recipe, which I used for many years. Adapted from Asian Dumplins by Andrea Nguyen Makes 16 medium bao. 1.5 teaspoons instant yeast .75 cups warm water 2 Tablespoons canola oil 2 Tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 12.5 ounces (2.5c) AP flour Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl and let sit for 1 minute, add oil and whisk. Set aside. Whiz the dry ingredients together in a food processor, using the metal blade. Use 20 seconds to pour the liquid through the tube into the dry ingredients while processing. Process 45-60 seconds longer, until the dough comes together into a ball. If there are more than a few little straggly pieces, add a little water. Dough should feel medium-soft and tacky but not sticky. Put dough in oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit until doubled, about 45 minutes. Voila! So much easier, and it uses instant yeast. Good luck. I also wanted to say that you can use instant yeast in any recipe that calls for dry active yeast. 1t instant=1.3 t dry active.

You talk about the resale value of your home. Are you planning to live there a long time? If not, I can't imagine that the realtor wouldn't make you install an oven before your place went to market. Would you want to buy it now or then? I think it would be cheaper to install now rather than later because you wouldn't have cabinets to rip out. That's something to consider if you are there short term. Edit: Ha! Mark D. and I were thinking the same thing at the same time!

I don't peel it. I leave the peel on. Am I horrible?

I think I'm in a similar position and I can say that it's because of Modernist Cuisine. It is the end all of cookbooks and has spoiled me for all others. It is such a joy. All other cookbooks pale in comparison.

I've used UltraTex 8 for cold preparations but I've never baked with it. I remember reading somewhere that it didn't behave consistantly when heated. That, plus the fact that instant Clearjel is much cheaper and more readily available, made me not experiment. Chris, have you ever heated something you made with UltraTex 8? Maybe it can be heated just fine and that's some old prejudice I've hung on to in my brain.

I really like instant clearjel for berry pies. I buy it at kingarthurflour.com. It's a thickener that works without heat so you know exactly how thick your filling is going to be before you fill your pie. Also, it doesn't taste starchy. The only thing to remember is to combine the sugar in your recipe with the powdered instant clearjel before you add it to the berries to avoid clumping. Seriously, this stuff takes the guesswork out of berry pies. I give bags of it as gifts. Sometimes people are disappointed that it's not cocaine. Just checking to see if you're reading this post.

Oh, like Momofuku pork buns! Thank you.

Did you put the beef, kimchi and salsa all in the bao and then steam it?

If you are getting arthritis you might enjoy the stand mixer. Because it mixes and kneads, and because you don't have to hold it like a hand mixer, you might find yourself doing much more baking than you have in the past because there would be no pain involved. I really enjoy the expandability of the stand mixer's function with attachments, too. I use my pasta roller attachment quite often. I use my extruder for macaroni way more than I thought I would. I really like being able to make anything quickly and efficiently. I live 20 minutes from the nearest store. If I am out of bread or pasta, I like that I can make it quickly without great effort. Before I had a stand mixer I would have to really psych myself up for a baking project because it was a serious undertaking. Now the mixer sits out on the counter and I can just do it without all the resistance from my inner lazy self.

I had both the Atlas with all its attachments and then I got the KA. After 3 years of not using the Atlas once, I gave it away. I liked it but the KA is so much easier. I make alot of dyed striped pasta and I can tell the KA kneads the dough more evenly by how much more quickly the dye is completely incorporated into the dough with the KA. Also once I've assembled the striped layers and I run it through the roller the final time, the KA produces a much straighter piece (important when it's striped) and having 2 hands free to guide both ends really helps make the final product perfect. Also about making pasta more often? What Maggie said.

Mmmmmm, yes, cilantro. What about coconut milk? And a little peanutbutter and ginger.